The Day I Sold My Soul For Answers
by Beta Academy
Summary: Plenty of people wish they could be in some one else's shoes. Gabriel may have as a child, but as an adult it is rather unsettling. Especially when it happens out of nowhere and wake up in a life he's only aware of because he'd played Doki Doki Literature Club not long before it happened to him. Now he's the MC and at a loss. Rated M for safety.
1. Chapter 1

Tsubasa yawned as he stretched over the back of his chair, the sound of joints popping back into place. The room was filled with light from only the sunset that bordered on evening twilight. He had been there a little before three P.M., right after school ended, and after looking at the clock it was 4:47. The anime/gaming club's meetings only held for an hour since everyone had their own schedule to go on and the president wanted everyone to get into a time frame where everyone could be included. Tsubasa did appreciate the club being there to begin with, but given that the room consisted of only males they only really picked the fanservicey and ecchi anime's and the games mostly consisted of dating sims. Whenever they _do_ try and differ from this it ends up being something mainstream. Tsubasa didn't have any particular problems with this but it really limited any variation at all. Even the discussions were mostly basic and the group mostly talked (Half of the time heatedly) about waifu's and who was the _best_ waifu, and what was _badass_. His only real problem was how _biased_ people can get over this shit. Two of the students had accidently broken a desk in one of these disputes.

Tsubasa was sure there were actual civilized groups out there with even a female audience (Given the demographic of the anime/gaming club he didn't blame them for keeping their distance) but he ended up drawing the short stick of it all and had this particular version of this club. The fact that these people were the most he could even relate to anyone in this school made him almost feel like a prisoner. At least he had friends on the internet to talk to about this but until he was finished with High School this was as close to human contact he could get in this regard. He wasn't the most social person in the world by any means, and he's aware that his demeanor wasn't welcoming (Always with a perma-frown with white hair and menacing red eyes). Even most of the club avoided talking to him. Not that he minded too much.

Still. Something a little more exciting would be nice. Something different.

"Later Tsubasa." The second to last student said with a wave of his hand while he finished packing up and heading out the door.

Tsubasa grunted in acknowledgment and went back to finishing his homework. Most of the club members preferred to do their homework at school after hours to keep the "Work" mindset easier, and Tsubasa was one of them. All of them did their work quietly and left. He sometimes felt he made the others uneasy. He never cared to really act on it. It was their fault for intimidating easily.

After a couple more minutes he finished his work and stretched again. He was half-way through packing his stuff when he heard a quick triple tap on the classrooms door. He turned and saw one of the other students standing there.

Tsubasa knew him from some of his classes and seeing him around school. He never once spoke to him or vice-versa. He didn't know his name but he was aware that he was best friends with that one pink haired girl, the real bubbly and upbeat one. He believed her name was _Sayo-something_.

"Club president isn't in until tomorrow." Tsubasa informed him. "If you come back after school you can talk to him about joining but I don't think we have room for new members."

"That's alright." He said with a nod. "I'm not looking to join any clubs; I just need to talk to someone."

"To who and why? I can leave a message for you." Tsubasa was done packing his things and closed his case. He wanted this guy to just be done so he could get out of there and go home. His stomach wasn't growling yet but he definitely wanted to be back in time for dinner. The sweet wouldn't last him forever. "Just give me your name...?"

"Gabriel. Gabe." Gabe looked down the hallway as if to make sure no one else was within hearing distance. "And I literally just need to talk about someone about dating sims. It's _really_ important."

" _Literally everyone_ in this class can help you." Tsubasa walked to the door sliding past Gabriel. If he needed anyone, it could be anyone but him. " _Tomorrow._ "

"W-wait!" Gabriel grabbed his arm making Tsubasa jump in surprise. Gabe winced and let go. "Please, you're a part of that club, right? I really need advice from someone on this subject, and I need it before tomorrow."

Tsubasa lightly glared at Gabe before turning and walked down the hallway to get out of the school. He didn't remember "Gabriel" acting like he was seemed a bit unlike from what he'd before but he didn't care. He just wanted to get home.

"Dude, _please_ , I'm _begging_ you!" He even sounded just as desperate. "I just need an hour of your time! If you want money, I can _pay_ you!"

" _Goodnight_ Gabriel." Tsubasa was almost at the turn. His sister was supposed to be preparing some kind of meat stew. He hoped it was beef. They've been having-  
" _I'm a twenty-six-year-old American man in a Japanese boy's body trapped inside of a dating sim, AND I NEED SOMEONE TO TALK TO!_ "

Tsubasa stopped just before the turn with a raised eyebrow. He weighed his options: Hear out an obviously mentally disturbed classmate, or go home and eat dinner. He stood there for a moment longer before he gave a resigned sigh.

...

Before wanting to start any kind of discussion Tsubasa went to the school's cafeteria vending machine to get something to drink and snack on. Gabe settled for just a coffee. They returned to the classroom and set-up two desks to be facing each other to make discussion easier. Tsubasa was eating his potato chips and sipping at his soda leisurely while Gabe only looked into his bottle of coffee looking awkward, stressed, and in vague despair. Tsubasa noticed that Gabe was straining to keep his hands from shaking but he still jittered. Tsubasa made no comment on this and just took another sip of his drink.

Tsubasa had waited for perhaps five minutes for Gabe to say something to start off their talk and when it was apparent that he didn't know how Tsubasa decided it would be best to start it off.

Tsubasa clicked his tongue before asking his first question: "So, you believe your inside of game?"

Gabe finally looked up to meet with Tsubasa's eyes. He nodded absently. Tsubasa didn't believe what he was saying is real but Gabe sure believed in it. Gabe even had a different look in his eyes than the usual face he saw him wear in class.

Tsubasa continued.

"A dating sim as well."

Gabe nodded again.

"So did the game... suck you in or something? What's the rundown on what happened here?"

"I played the game, nothing happened until a month-and-a-half later. I went to bed after a long day of work and I woke up..." He shook his and gestured all around him. " _Here_."

"At the school?"

"No. Whoever's body I'm in's house."

"And in response to this, you decided to come to school?" Tsubasa asked incredulously.  
Gabe scratched the back of his head while shaking his head in embarrassment. "One thing led to another..."

"Alright, _look_. Start from the beginning. Like, when you first played this game...?"

" _Doki Doki Literature Club_." Gabe confirmed. Tsubasa snorted at the name. Gabe couldn't help but nod with a snort of his own. "It was meant to sound and look like one of the most happy-time school-life games until about halfway through. Then it turns into psychological horror."

Tsubasa found that pretty interesting. He gestured for Gabriel to go on. Gabe took a deep breath and recounted the events leading up to him first playing the game. 

...

On a Saturday evening after Gabriel had gotten off from his job at a small diner as a chef for his aunt and uncles restaurant, one of his Friends that he keeps up with regularly had called him earlier that morning if he had free time to hang out. Gabriel had nothing planned so after work he headed to see Marvin. They weren't too close as friends but half of their tastes were similar enough to keep in touch. After taking the bus and walking a few blocks he arrived to his destination and spent the rest of the day at Marvin's.

Maybe four hours before the time he left they were sitting on the couch. They played video games for a good while with Marvin still in his robe and pajamas. They shared a two-liter soda and a bag of chips between them while they played and later decided to take a break and watch some TV.

He couldn't remember what they were watching, but he assumed it had kind of romance sequence because that had somehow started the conversation that led to Doki Doki Literature Club.  
"'Doki Doki'?" Gabriel asked. "What the fuck is 'Doki Doki'?"

"It's, like, the sound effect of a heart beat in Japanese. More specifically when you're standing next to someone of the beautiful and pleasant looking variety."

"Ah. One of your naughty little games you play..."

"Nah, man, this one was more or less clean but the girls in it are definitely what brought people in the first place. It's what the game is _really_ about that really brought in the heard."

Marvin went into a bit more detail about the game without spoiling anything relevant. He went over the characters, the setting, the mechanics it starts out with which seem relevant to it until the halfway point when you see the meat of it. He had told Gabriel that it would be psychological horror without going any further than that.

"You're really going to blue ball me here?" Gabriel asked while finishing off the soda.

"The games free on Steam. You should play it yourself and really grasp the experience. Even if you're not a big fan of this stuff it's definitely worth the time for this."

A little more nudging from Marvin and Gabriel had indeed reached his peaked in his curiosity and had downloaded it on his laptop while still at his friend's house. He played for about an hour with his friend looking over his shoulder time to time while he was making dinner for them both. He never played sim games, but he was more than aware of their presence though most of it was knowledge he picked up from Marvin.

Though it was certainly new and interesting for Gabriel (And though it seemed like a cheesy anime at times it was more engaging then he expected) after an hour he began to lose interest much to his friend's annoyance. Their friend they were playing with over online was back on again at that point so Gabriel was more in the mood to play with real people then with just himself. He promised that he would be over the next week to play more of the Doki Doki Literature Club while Marvin watched to see whatever reactions he wanted to see.

Unfortunately, the next three weeks they had scheduling confliction and were not able to have any free time to meet up. Gabriel didn't want to admit it to Marvin but he had become quite curious with the direction the game would go. He had come across many things about the game on internet searches that happened to be related enough for it to come up along with what he was looking for in games and anime, and YouTube around that time was basically a minefield for the game with popular gaming YouTuber's having videos left and right regarding it and Gabriel had become concerned for spoilers. Marvin had informed him that he wouldn't be free any time soon and suggested that Gabriel just play it in his spare time and inform Marvin how he enjoyed it.

And it sure was an experience. After a while he forgot that it was a horror game until the morning of the festival when he read Sayori's poem in the pamphlet. Gabe gave the game a bit of props it did make him feel very uneasy at that point forward. The game had presented the characters well enough for him to be concerned of their wellbeing.

Then Sayori hung herself. His worries were justified and the game turned into a steady train of uneasiness going south at record speed. He finished the game that day.

...

"Then the month gap you mentioned occurred." Tsubasa asked. He followed by drinking the rest of his beverage.

"Yes."

"Anything significant happen at all during that time? Odd occurrences? Like your computer acting up or the like?"

"No!" Gabe said with a shake of his head. "I'd have more than welcome any _BEN Drowned_ shit if it could put some kind of face on the situation, but no. I did what I always did: Went to work, watched T.V. and played games after if I wasn't hanging out with friends, went to sleep. Nothing at all eventful in between." Gabe stopped for a moment and scrunched his brows in thought. "Well, except for last night. Before this happened."

Tsubasa listened.

...

Gabriel had just gotten back from work after a long day of just rushing to cook. He was only supposed to have an eight hour shift that day but the person who was supposed to come in after him had called in sick so he had to stay around for another three hours with a larger amount of orders than usual and people who were impatient, but he had somehow got it all done without any incident.

He went upstairs to his apartment on the second floor and went inside. He flipped on the light switch to reveal his shabby but clean apartment. He shrugged off his bag and tossed it and his keys onto the counter with a relieved sigh followed by a bone popping stretch. He was able to cook himself a meal before he left so he didn't have to worry about dinner that night. He went to the kitchen area grabbing a fork from his drawer and taking the Styrofoam package out of its plastic bag following to the couch where he sat and watched some Netflix for about an hour before he felt like going to sleep. He turned off the T.V. and tossed the container into the trash and the fork in the sink.

Gabe took his time in the shower and let the hot water run over him to wash the day away. Upon exiting the shower, he looked into the fogged mirror, wiping the steam away to reveal his face which he frowned at the reflection. His stubble was starting to make a black tint on the bottom half of his face, feeling like sandpaper against the palms of his hands. Gabe debated on whether or not he should shave but he yawned and shrugged off the idea. He was too tired to get it done that night. He figured he'd get it done the next morning.

Upon entering his room, he tossed his dirty clothes into the rest of the pile at the foot of his bed, but something caught his eye. His computer was on.

The computers sound was on very low from a late night gaming session and it took him a second to pick up the sound but by the time he looked at the screen he already knew what was on. The familiar sound of the piano theme to Doki Doki Literature Club was playing as he saw the screen pop up with all four of the main girls of the series all having their usual expressions greet him with the pink and happy background.

Gabe faced the computer with a thoughtful expression. Had he turned it on before he got into the shower? He recalled a few times when he had done this before in prep to have the computer fully loaded so he didn't have to wait for the boot-up, but he remembered that the days he would do that were usually on his work days with the least hours. There was a chance that he did do this, but why load it back to this game? He didn't have any reason to play this game again. He had his fill. He already watched other YouTubers play the other routes when curiosity nudged him to look. The memories were fuzzy at that point given the one play through a month ago but he didn't have an urge to play it anytime soon.

He shrugged it off. He was honestly too tired to really care. He must've left the computer on and bumped the mouse in the right places to get there. He turned off the computer and turned off the light before dropping onto his bed. He hugged his pillow to him and was asleep in minutes.

...

"...That's it?" Tsubasa asked with a light chuckle.

"That's it, man. Then I woke up here."

"I mean, it's reasonable to link these together. The way it follows up makes sense, but just having the game on doesn't seem like... A big leap, you know?"

"I know! And before you ask me: The game was downloaded by its official source, the system was _off_ , _and_ there were no changes at all to the menu before I turned it off. I just..." He sighed through his nose. "I don't know, man. It just freaks me out."

"What about dreams?" Tsubasa asked with his interest growing. He found this interesting. "Was there anything significant about it before waking up?"

"I haven't really been able to remember my dreams since I turned, like, ten."

"Fragments?" Tsubasa pressed.

Gabe thought it over. "Maybe if I think on it, but right now everything is blank on that part."

Tsubasa thought that was fair enough. One question did arise for him. "So where did you wake up exactly?"

This time Gabriel actually expressed annoyance with a deep sigh. "Oh, I have _a bit_ more to tell you about this." He jerked his thumb to point at himself. "Let me tell you how it went down waking up as _Generic Guy Number_ whatever-the-hell."

...

Gabriel was forced to awaken to the sound of birds chirping. He grunted in annoyance and was forced to open his eyes which he immediately regretted it. The sunlight from outside had hit him right in the retinas making him clamp his eyes shut and turn his face into the pillow as a shield. He groaned. This is _exactly_ why he put those thick curtains up in the first place. Did he kick them away in his sleep?

He laid there for a few more minutes to see if maybe he could get at least an hour of more sleep before he figured his phone's alarm would go off. He resigned and decided to get up. There's no way he'd get back to sleep at that point and even then with that whole biker thing going on he'll need to be prepared before he heads out. Yesterday hearing those motors was like the coming of the apocalypse so he should expect as much today.

Although upon getting up his mind did a double take. At first his still half sleeping mind couldn't really decide if what it was seeing was right but as he fully awakened he was horrifically confused. He didn't recognize the room at all. Slowly he turned his head to survey the room and it was completely alien to him. The room was bigger than the one in his apartment and it was definitely less cluttered (And cleaner) and everything was arranged differently. But of course these are just background thoughts. His heart was racing at the foremost thoughts was _why_ he was there in the first place. There was no plausible way for him to have sleep walked into someone else's house.

Could someone have actually taken the time to put him here? As some kind of prank? He didn't have any kind of friend who would make a joke like that on such a scale. By the minute he was feeling more and more confused, and the good sized room was beginning to feel smaller. He felt like he was suffocating. His breathing has quickening and his heart felt like it was going to pop out of his chest in panic.

He went to the nearest phone he could find and there was one on his nightstand that he dove for as soon as it entered his vision. Thankfully there wasn't a lock on it and he just swiped over the screen and was in. He went to the dial pad and tried to call 911. He had gotten some message saying that the call could not be transferred and his heart turned into a lump in his throat.

He instead tried dialing the number for his aunt and uncle's establishment and waited for the phone to ring. The message told him that the phone call could not be made since it would be to another country. He tried to ring up Marvin. Same message. He tried to ring up any number he could from memory but none of them work. He growled in frustration and threw the phone in the corner of the room where it clacked and cluttered against the floor. He put his hands against his face and rubbed them down roughly against him.

"What the actual _fuck_ man..." He said to no one.

His breath caught in his throat. That was _not_ his voice coming out. One thing he realized there was no stubble on his face either. Even the structure of his face wasn't the same as he was used to.  
He stumbled off of the bed and rushed to find any room with a mirror. He tripped over his feet a few times when he went to the door just down the hallway to the left of the room he was in and lucked out finding it was a bathroom. The bathroom was lit by sunlight coming from a window. He saw the sink to the left of the room and was more than sure that there would be the mirror he was looking for. He cautiously stepped inside.

He looked into the reflection.

He didn't see the twenty-six-year-old scrawny man. He didn't see the black shaggy hair that could look greasy really quick on a hot day. He didn't see the patchy chest hair with bald spots that almost made Orion's Belt, or the baggy olive eyes that had been wide open during long game sessions.

Instead he saw a teenage boy that was just a hair away from looking like he could shave. His hair was a little shaggy and brown, but not in a messy fashion. He was maybe a head smaller then he remembered. The eyes were now a hazelnut brown.

He rose a shaky hand to his face, and his reflection copied his movements.

Gabriel screamed with his alien voice filling his ears, making his voice raise louder.

...

 _I feel like writing this snippet took longer than it should have for a first chapter, but then again I was never that good at beginnings to start with (Ha-ha I think). Hopefully I did this well enough and will be smoother sailing from here._

 _Anyway, if you've come across and it's up your alley, please favorite and follow. Please leave a review, any criticism is welcome, even if you hated it._

 _-Your Boy Beta_


	2. Chapter 2

"So you freaked out and screamed." Tsubasa commented. "That would be understandable."

Gabriel sighed through his nose. "I'm not proud. But it's what I did."

They had been in the school room for perhaps twenty or thirty minutes while Gabriel talked away. Tsubasa was still not really believing these things actually happened, but this was sure entertaining. When Gabriel went on he really went into it (Though he dragged on in areas, but he didn't want to interrupt the flow) he sure was convincing. He looked at his watch.

"Hey, I'm going to have to go or my sister will get pissed. If you're up for walking and talking, I'll still hear you out."

"Yeah, sure." Gabriel agreed and they both got up to get their things, going into the hallway and leaving the classroom behind them. "I just need to keep track of where we're going pretty closely. I only know how to get to the house to here."

"I've seen you walk here a few times." Tsubasa said assuring. "I have a general idea where you live. When we get to my place I'll point you to the right direction."

"You are a saint, good sir."

Tsubasa snorted. "Yeah, right. Anyway, so did the neighbors complain? The last thing you want is trouble there."

"That wasn't even a main concern then. Slipped my mind. Since no one but _her_ showed up when I did, I guess they didn't."

"Ah. You mean..."

Tsubasa made his guess. They continued their talk as they entered the school yard toward the exit.

...

Gabriel fell to the floor and couldn't find it in himself to move from his position. His legs were basically Jell-O and he barely had it in him to even keep himself up right. His breathing was erratic and he hugged his legs to himself rocking back and forth.

"This isn't happening..." He whispered to himself over and over again with a breaking voice. After hearing his own words not sounding like they should he pressed his lips into a thin line to keep himself from talking. Right now he wasn't capable of coping with that fact yet.

After a minute he was able to compose himself enough to stand of his own after supporting himself with the sink.

He slapped his own face hard with both hands. This had to be some sort of dream. There is no possible way for this to happen. This was indeed one of the more vivid ones he's had for a while, but all he had to do was snap himself out of it. He repeatedly slapped himself in the face and made no progress, unless one counted having a headache being a goal. Gabriel gave up on that and decided to go for a different approach. He turned the hot tap on the sink to full blast and once the steam started rising he placed his hands under the gushing faucet. The water felt like he was searing his flesh but he held it there regardless. His expression became very pained and he fought for his hands to stay there until he woke up, but he couldn't take anymore and with a small yell coming from him yanked his hands back.

In an act of desperation to alleviate the pain he turned the cold tap on quickly and the let the water sooth the burning sensation. He sighed in relief. His hands would be red for a while but there were luckily no lasting burns.

There had to be a reason for this. There had to be some sort of explanation for all of this. _Any_ of this.

A loud and repetitive knocking erupted from what Gabriel could think being downstairs given the way in sounded. His spine went rigid.

"Hey!" A worried voice called out. It came from a girl by the sound of it.

...

"Dude, I know who it is at this point."

"Roll with it."

...

"Are you okay?" The voice came again. Gabriel was at a loss on how to even react at this point. Instead of yelling or staying still he walked slowly toward the hallway and sure enough there were stairs like he assumed. There was another loud barrage of urgent knocking. He creeped down the steps. There was a long pause from the door. He made it to the bottom of the steps and he could see the front door. The peephole was darkened by the presence of someone standing behind it.

"Come on, it's Sayori!" The voice, Sayori, called out again. A moment passed before he thought he heard some kind of concerned moan before he heard some clattering followed by something entering the keyhole on the other side.

The sound of a key unlocking a door. "H-hey, I'm coming in, okay?"

Gabriel heard the clack of the door's latch coming undone. The thought of running upstairs and hiding somewhere up there seemed favorable. As did just answering the door to see who it was before they got in. Or yelling for that person that everything was fine and they needn't come in. Also on top of that the name Sayori was definitely familiar and he did everything he could to remember it. All of these decisions to make while placing a face to a name had made him as still as a statue being unable to come to a choice to make. He was a deer in headlights.

The door finally opened. The person on the other side of the door had their head coming into the open crack to survey the inside and turned her head toward the stairs and stopped when her eyes fell on Gabriel she twitched a bit in surprise. Looking into her wide eyes Gabriel's first thought was _blue_. Her eyes were a deep shade of it.

She sighed in relief and opened the door fully revealing herself to him. Standing there was a girl just barely reaching over five-foot wearing duck-pajamas and a plain white t-shirt. She looked to be around fifteen to sixteen and as notable she had deep blue eyes. And rather peculiar she had pink hair.

"Why didn't you answer?" She said with a groan. "You had me worried sick, screaming like that!"  
Gabriel's mouth gaped an inch. Had he not seen the game screen last night who this girl was would completely go over his head.

"I'm surprised the whole neighborhood didn't hear that! What scared you so bad!?"

"Sayori..." He said, barely above a whisper.

"What's wrong?" Before Gabriel could even take a step Sayori closed the distance and was on her tip-toes facing him, half-a-foot away. "Oh, wow, you're pretty pale... And your cheeks are red..." She placed a hand on her head and the other on his, checking for a fever. "You don't feel hot, but you are pretty clammy."

Gabriel just kept moving his lips with no words coming out of them, except the last one. "... Real."

"I'm going to get you some medicine." Sayori said. She grabbed his wrists and lead him to the couch, placing him there. "Can you tell me how you feel?"

"I have a splitting headache." Gabriel said hoarsely. This was true. There was a steady pain going through his head until he could feel the pressure in his teeth. He began rubbing his temples. This was just becoming too much to process in the last twenty minutes.

"I'll see what you have in the medicine cabinet." Sayori got up and ran fast toward the stairs. "Just wait there, Tardis!"

...

"'Tardis?'" Tsubasa asked. "Well, it does sound familiar..."

"Tardis is the name I gave for the M.C." Gabriel explained. "If this dude had a life before me, that would be it. It was the name in everything I could find about the body I'm in."

Tsubasa shrugged. "Makes sense enough. Your name didn't sound right for a Japanese guy."

"Which one?"

"Either of them."

...

Tardis was his nickname on many gaming formats with one add-on or abbreviation given he wasn't the only one who tried to have that name online, but by his associates would call him by his screen name (Or "Tard", but he didn't talk with those people often). If was also the name, he used for his character in Doki Doki. If Sayori referred to him by that name, then he had to have been his character.

Gabriel's headache was getting worse as his vision was blaring out of vision. He closed his eyes and massaged harder trying to think over it.

So if that _was_ the Sayori he thought it was...

Sayori was coming down the stairs in a flash and her feet pattered off somewhere else. Gabriel heard a tap turn on. It turned off and she came back again.

"Here." She said placing two pills into his hand. "The only thing I could really find was Aspirin."  
Gabriel took them gratefully and downed them with the glass of water. He sat there with his eyes closed while the pills took effect. He took a deep breath to better compose his thoughts.

This all being a dream was still debatable despite his still stinging hands, but right then the realism of it all was too much to ignore. He had to take in the possibility that this was all real, and if that being the case he needed to assess the situation deeply.

He summed it up better in his head by simply addressing it by putting it in the words of Oz: He was not in Kansas anymore. The reason for that was still beyond him and would have to be something to debate about for another time. The game being on last night relating to this? Possible, but a narrow theory.

Well, that was as deep as _that_ was going to be.

Maybe there was a different angle he had to look at. Trying to figure out the _why_ could lead to _how_ , but since there was no _why_ at the moment he'll just have to settle with figuring out _how the hell to get out of here_.

No, no. He was getting ahead of himself. There was Sayori, and the resemblance is uncanny, but was this the Sayori from Doki Doki?

He lifted his head up. His head was feeling and he found himself on a couch inside what he assumed to be the living room. Sayori was sitting across from him in a reclining chair in a tight upright position, clearly trying not to look directly at him. Gabriel assumed she was trying to give him space to try and recuperate. It was a nice gesture, but Gabriel used this time to scan her. All she looked was concerned so he couldn't really get a read on her personality. He figured he'd try and navigate through conversation.

"Thanks for the assist." Gabriel said with a smile. "I'm feeling a lot better."

Sayori beamed with a nod. "What are friends for?" She kept her smile but her brows furrowed again. "Pretty please tell me what's wrong?"

Sayori assumed he wasn't feeling well by the pale complexion and red cheeks. She heard him scream. He has a decent game collection upstairs. Gears quickly turned in Gabriel's head.

Gabriel sighed and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "I played a horror game last night, I was kind of coming down with the flu..." He shrugged. "I had a bad fever dream."

Sayori groaned aloud tilting her head back. "I told you playing those scary games would come back to haunt you."

"I guess you did." Gabriel let out a shaky little laugh. "I should've listened."

Sayori frowned and blinked once. "Huh. You almost never admit I'm right." She tilted her head. "Maybe you should take a sick day..."

Gabriel couldn't tell if that was a joking Segway to the point or if she was being serious. He guessed it didn't matter much. If Sayori was there, then the club would be there as well with the other members. Natsuki, Yuri, and Monika.

Monika.

As the game progressed, she became self-aware, or was already aware to a degree. Perhaps she was behind this? During the end of the game she was pretty open about what she did and didn't know, so he didn't see a reason why she would even hide at that point. He would have already known.

He had to stop himself. He was getting ahead of himself again. First off, is the club _there_?

"No, no." He waved the idea off. The thought of going to a High School to assume the life of someone else was not something he ever thought of, but now that the option is there, it feels... _Unsettling_ to say the least. He already felt like a stranger in someone else's skin, but this was admittedly a step too far. He scratched his arm uncomfortably. He'd much rather try to hide in the bedroom upstairs all day and pretend the situation away, but that wouldn't solve anything. It would probably make matters only worse to put it off. "I actually wanted to ask you something..."

"Hmm?" She responded attentively.

"You, um..." Gabriel thought how to navigate this. "You mentioned something about a club before, right? Some kind of book club..."

"The _Literature Club_!" Sayori said with an edge, but any intimidation it would have held was diminished by her puffed out cheeks and pouting. "I've been talking about it for a long time! Were you not listening whenever I talked about it?"

This was not taking a favorable turn.

"Well, uh..." _Think, think, think..._ "I guess it didn't stick too well because I didn't have an interest to join a club until recently."

"Recently?" Sayori's eyes lit up. "Are you planning what I think you're planning...?"

"I probably am!" Gabriel replied standing up. Remembered how the game's introduction with Sayori talked about joining clubs, so this was perfect. "I've really thought about it, and I've been thinking about checking yours out! I was going to swing by after school-!"

Gabriel was interrupted by Sayori practically jumping off the couch and dive hugging him, nearly making him fall back into the couch. She was laughing giddily and jumping up and down while holding him.

"Yay!" She exclaimed joyously. She then began chanting. "Tardis joined the club! Tardis joined the club! Tardis joined the club!"

He didn't actually say he was going to, but he intended to anyway so he didn't feel the need to correct her.

She pulled away with the biggest smile he ever saw a human being make. "This is all happening really fast!"

 _Like you wouldn't believe..._ Gabriel thought to himself.

"I can't wait until schools over! They'll be so excited to meet you! This is great!"

So there is a Literature Club, and there are people in it.

Sayori looked behind him and he followed her gaze to a clock mounted on a wall. 7:14 A.M.  
"We should go right now!" Sayori said excitedly. "If we get dressed and head out now we'll be there early! I'm going to hold you to your word! You better be there!"

And like that Sayori was already heading toward the door at a jog while humming happily to herself. Gabriel would have been more surprised if he didn't know this was her character.

"Wait!" He called out to her. She stopped and turned to look at him from the open doorway. He wanted to get this out of the way first. "How many members are in the club?"

She winked at him with a smile. "You'll find out when we get there!"

Gabriel sputtered for her to wait and just tell him what he wanted to know (Politely) but she was already gone. Gabriel let out a resigned sigh and went upstairs to get dressed as Sayori said. When he got into the room he first turned to the bed and plopped down on his butt letting out a shaken groan.  
It had to have been maybe thirty minutes, if even that.

So he was going to the school, that was without a doubt. One thing that he had to remember was that in the game the only four shown characters shown were the club members (Well, five if you counted the protagonist, but the only view of him was the back while he hugged Sayori). Would there even be other people? Even when he screamed Sayori was the only one who showed up.

Sayori only knows Gabe as Tardis, so if the others are there at the club there's a good chance they'll only know him for the first time going there. The only exception to this would be Monika. If she was there he could maybe get some kind of answer, or better yet, a way to get out, but that would be debatable since she could still be on a love-high.

Gabriel got up and looked through the wardrobe to find a uniform, keeping an eye out for grey since that was everyone else's uniform in game. If he wanted to get anything he would without a doubt have to leave the house.

So today he would have to pretend to be the character Tardis.

...

"That would be uncomfortable." Tsubasa agreed. They were around half-way to their destination. People would occasionally pass them but they were too far into their own business to butt into the High Schooler's (Well, technically one) strange conversation.

"Like you would not believe."

"So, how was your first day of school again?"

Gabriel frowned in thought. "I tried to pry Sayori more for information on the club, but she wouldn't budge. If I prodded anymore it would have made her question me. So I just had to wing it until we got to school and during."

"Yeah... How the hell did you go about that?"

"Well, I was first very concerned about figuring out what my classes were, but I was able to get to my first one since Sayori's was the one next to mine. Apparently she would always talk to Tardis on their way to his classroom so she basically escorted me. I didn't figure out that we all just stuck in the same room and the teachers shifted back and forth until I noticed that when the bell rang no one else moved. So I stuck around, everyone else stayed where they were until the next teacher came in, I made the assumption."

"I see. What about the school work?"

"I made it half-way through my Senior year before I dropped out for personal reasons and I wasn't the best at school to begin with, so I had half of an idea of what to do. Can't guarantee that Tardis will make good grades this week after this whole ordeal, though."

Tsubasa snorted. "Not very concerned for 'Tardis', huh?"

"The game doesn't even let you get pass the morning of the festival before..." Gabriel trailed off. " _Specific events_ occurred. I have faith that this will only last a week."

"What about gym?"

"Someone in my class is apparently on chatty terms with Tardis and they conveniently have gym together. Given the circumstances, I was lucky."

"As lucky as you can get to be in someone else's skin."

Gabriel shuddered. "Please don't put it that way."

Tsubasa nodded in acknowledgement. "So you basically breezed your way through school until you reached to the Literature Club. How did that go?"

...

Gabriel followed Sayori through the halls of the school and eventually up a flight of stairs, and to his understanding this part of the building was used for third-year activities during school hours. Sayori had grabbed him not too long after school let out and the bubbly girl was so filled with excitement that it was everything she could muster to not explode. There were a few lines he remembered from the game, and he remembered the introduction was _The day I sold my soul for a cupcake._ Though he went willingly and didn't need to be coaxed by carbs (Although he was hungry and would partake in the cupcakes) perhaps it would be better to say he sold his soul to try and find some answers.

He hadn't come across Monika at all at the school, and he found that disheartening, but he hadn't even seen Yuri and Natsuki, let alone Sayori during the school day, so he held onto some shred of hope. Sayori never gave any input on the members or her position in the club as of yet, but he would get his answers momentarily.

Sayori, full of energy, swings open the classroom door.

...

 _Thank you ReadingBoy01 for the suggestion on spreading the format. Forgot how bad it can look on FanFiction with how squished it came together._

 _If you've come across and it's up your alley, please favorite and follow. Please leave a review, any criticism is welcome, even if you hated it._

 _-Your Boy Beta_


	3. Chapter 3

"Everyone!" Sayori called out. "The new member is here-!"

Gabriel walked in behind Sayori into a class room that was basically a copy & paste of the other class room he had been in except for a few decorative taste differences that didn't change the overall appearance that much. It was still a classroom. He quickly glanced around to take it all in and his gaze followed on someone who had stepped forward. This one had stopped a few feet away with a nervous expression as _she_ fidgeted in her spot while trying to maintain eye contact with Gabriel while at the same time trying to do everything _but_ maintain eye contact, a rather awkward feat she was somehow maintaining with grace. She was a tall girl, almost at eye level with Gabriel, and her demeanor was shy and reserved, obviously, and she was very pretty. Her eyes and hair almost matched, her hair violet and her eyes a light purple that Gabriel found almost mesmerizing.

Yuri.

"Welcome to the Literature Club. It's a pleasure to meet you." She greeted. "Sayori always says nice things about you."

"Seriously?" Another voice said, sounding disappointed. Gabriel pointed his gaze to the owner of the voice who was walking up to stand next to Yuri. A younger looking girl, who was... rather the opposite of Yuri. She was the shortest of everyone in the room, half-a-head shorter than Sayori. Both her eyes and hair matched in the color pink, and was a brighter color than Sayori's, almost appearing to have the consistency of bubble gum or cotton candy. While Yuri's attitude was more reserved, this one was more assertive and had a layer of hostility. She had bows in her hair that gave her pigtails while at the same time keeping it at shoulder level around her neck, and one strand bowed up to go across her forehead to the right. She was looking Gabriel up and down with caution and distrust.

Natsuki.

"You brought a boy?" She looked Gabriel up and down, after a few moments crossing her arms and letting out a huff. "Way to kill the atmosphere."

It was an odd thing for Gabriel to see these people in the flesh. He had already come to terms that this would have been a high possibility, and he had already met Sayori earlier if that wasn't confirmation enough, but he probably could have put Sayori's look off as an incredibly accurate cosplay, but this... All movement in the game was just one picture of them one way then one of the other, but to see all of this as clear as the day through the windows, their almost alien good looks, how they were actually people with actual features of their in-game counterparts...

Gabriel felt motion sick. He swallowed. Hard.

"Are you okay?" Sayori asked from behind him. "You're not getting all sick again, are you?"

"Sick?" Yuri piped up in concern.

Natsuki immediately took a step back and covered her mouth. "If he's all sick, why'd you bring him here today!?"

"Natsuki!" Yuri quietly rebuked but Natsuki had already added distance. Yuri let it go and looked back to Gabriel in concern. "Would you like to go to the school nurse? If you're not feeling well, it would be-"

"I-I-I'm-" Gabriel stammered then forced himself to stop and forced a small smile to cross his face, taking a breath. "I'm fine. Thanks for your concern. My name is G-... Tardis. Thank you for having me." He nodded to Yuri and Natsuki. Yuri had nodded back with a smile of her own while Natsuki simply huffed and turned the other way, muttering something. Gabriel only caught _... to the club_. They both introduced themselves. He decided to take that as a lukewarm welcome. Sayori, however, was looking at him strangely again, but only for a moment. He caught Sayori looking at him again with some concern and confusion toward him, but she quickly changed it to her default smile and bubbly attitude when his attention was on her. That was concerning, but with how he saw Sayori's personality, it probably wasn't something he couldn't navigate around. Hopefully. He swallowed again.

"I'm sorry about this, it was a little uncalled for to come in like this." Gabriel said with a small laugh while scratching his neck.

"P-please!" Yuri said shyly said in a reassuring manner. "W-we're happy to have you consider our club."

"Happy to be here." Gabriel looked around and kept an ear on the hallway, tracking any sound of footsteps coming up to the room. There was none, and he fought a frown. Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki. "So, there are three members of the group, huh?"

"Nope!" Sayori chirped. "There's four of us!"

"Really? Who's that?" Gabriel asked, refraining from sounding eager.

"You, dummy! You said you'd join!"

It took Gabriel everything he could to not let out some loud sound of despair. He settled for clenching his fist tightly and silently screaming. He was surprised by just how angry he felt inside. So there was no Monika, possibly the only self-aware character that could have any inkling of what was going on. So far from how everyone else was acting they didn't have any knowledge of it all either, which meant that Gabriel really was alone.

 _Alone_.

It didn't really hit Gabriel until right then when he really thought of it. Not only was he in someone else's life, he was surrounded by no one he really knew. It was almost somehow worse being in whatever world he was in with the Literature Club, that there was more to it then he imagined, that he was in a bigger world than he could get a grasp of. And in all of this he was alone. He had never felt so small.

"Wait, hold on!" Natsuki interjected. "We said we'd meet him; we didn't agree on accepting him yet."

"Ehhh!?" Sayori exclaimed in surprise. "You were all for it!"

"I agree with Sayori." Yuri piped in. "You're being rather harsh and quick to judge, Natsuki."

"I'm not judging anyone! All I'm saying is-!"

"O-one moment, Tardis!" Sayori said with a forced giggle and grabbed Yuri, pulling her as she went with Natsuki and pulled them in a tight circle while they talked quietly amongst themselves. Yuri once looked up at Tardis apologetically and Tardis smiled in return. They stayed that way for a few moments longer than he expected. After thirty seconds passed, as Gabriel was going off by a clock by the wall, he cleared his throat.

"I'll just be in the restroom really quick." Gabriel informed them. They continued with their circle, still whispering back and forth, some coming out harsh by Natsuki. Gabriel let them do their thing as he walked out the door and down the hall to the bathroom.

...

"I'd rather not hear about your personal business in the bathroom, thank you." Tsubasa interrupted quickly.

"Relax, I just went in there to take a breather. Everything crashing down at once... I needed to take a moment."

"Ah. You needed a moment to cry."

"I did _not_ cry." 

...

Gabriel thumbed away the frustrated tears that leaked from his eyes before turning on the cold tap of the sink and washed his face. He splashed water onto himself a good five times before he turned off the water. He took a deep breath as large droplets of water fell from his face an into the sink.

"Get a grip." Gabriel chided himself. He looked up to face himself in the mirror but the face that looked backed at him was Tardis'. He flinched and looked back down into the sink. " _Get. A. Grip._ "

Gabriel absently wiped his face with his sleeve and went into one of the stalls and plopped down for a seat. He composed himself, his breath slowly regulating back to normal and his shaking hands to a mild tremor.

 _So Monika isn't there._ He thought to himself. _That doesn't mean you're a sitting duck just yet. There's the festival in the end, right? If you've never reached that part in the end, then maybe there's a chance this will be over by then. Maybe the best option would be to wait it out? Is that all I can do?_ He sat up straight and crossed his legs while his brow furrowed in thought. _I guess that's all I can do. I just have to navigate things until I can figure something out, or until something happens. I already said I'd join the club, and I can't back out now. Sayori is already suspicious of me enough, and backing out now would just make it worse. I'll have to see if this guy has a journal or something, anything to help me portray him better. Yuri seems to be just the way she is, and since this is our first meeting there's not much I need to really play out. Nice girl, too. However, Natsuki..._ Gabriel tapped his foot. _MC didn't get much of a voice in until they did their little semi-circle, and Natsuki presented her cat themed cupcakes, which really made the first impression when he said he liked them. Then he talked positively about manga. I can just find the ques and know when to speak up about it... Sayori is the most concerning, though. I'll have to be the most careful there._

Gabriel thought it all over for a moment before nodding to himself. He stood up and went out the door.

 _One week._ He assured himself. _One week, and we'll see what happens._

...

"So that's my big plan, really. Wait it out." Gabriel said as they exited a small mini-mart, with jerky and energy drinks in abundance in his plastic shopping bag. If he wasn't going to be able to get his daily Rockstars, he'll just have to make do with whatever power "Escalate" has for him.

"Do you even plan to hit 40?" Tsubasa commented looking at the bag with distaste.

Gabriel ignored him then popped the tab on one of his drinks and continued with his story.

...

Gabriel stepped out of the restroom, nearly hitting Sayori with the bathroom door. Sayori jumped out of the way in time with a surprised yelp and Gabriel flinched, jerking the door back.

"Startled me, there." Gabriel said closing the door behind him.

"Sorry!" Sayori said with a giggle and a smile. "Just wanted to check in on you. Feeling better?"

"Good enough, I guess." He assured.

"Sorry about Natsuki." She apologized with a shrug and a smile. "I guess she hasn't had much of a good today, and is crankier than usual. You can ignore her when she's like that after you're in!"

"That's fine, I don't hold anything against her." Gabriel is aware that she has problems at home, and without much introduction of a stranger in her comfort zone could put her on the defensive. "I can come by some other time if it'd make her feel better."

"No way!" Sayori said in dismay. "Come on, Natsuki even made cupcakes, and Yuri's making tea." She turned and walked back toward the classroom. "The cupcakes are delicious!"

Gabriel followed Sayori back into the classroom. While he was gone there was some tea maker in use (Yuri's) plugged in an outlet next to the teacher's desk and they had used the desks to make a makeshift table for them to discuss with. Natsuki sat with her back to the other side of the classroom with the window's, covered cupcakes laid out in front of her, while Yuri took the seat to the left of her. Sayori hummed a cheery tune while she hopped on to seat to the right of Natsuki, an attempt to make him more comfortable by placing him between someone he knows and someone who was just calming in aura. He took the seat given to him.

"Okaaay," Natsuki said proudly, the little debacle from before momentarily forgotten as she grabbed the little cover on her tray. Showing off her craft came first. "Are you ready?" She pulled off the cover. "Ta-daa!"

Natsuki revealed a dozen cupcakes in the tray, and as the game described before, they were white, fluffy cupcakes decorated to look like little cats. The whiskers are drawn with icing, and little pieces of chocolate were used to make the ears.

"Uwoooah!" Sayori cried in surprise, a bright smile lighting her already happy face. "So cuute-!"

Yuri just smiled at the presentation.

"Yeah, yeah," Natsuki waves off trying to appear humble, but that was clearly not the case. "Just hurry and take one!"

Sayori grabs one, Yuri passes on eating one (Natsuki looked a bit hurt on this, but said nothing) and instead went to set up the tea since it was done heating up, and Gabriel follows. Sayori immediately digs into her cupcake with gusto.

"It's delicious!" Sayori praises. Sayori talks with her mouth full and had gotten icing on her face.

Gabriel had the same trouble as the MC did and he was trying to find the best angle to bite into, turning it around in his fingers. With Natsuki straight ahead of him, he noticed her glancing at him through his peripheral vision, clearly waiting for him to take a bite. Gabriel shrugs to himself and takes a bite of the cupcake.

 _Holy shit, these are good._

"These are really good." Gabriel said, filtering what was in his head. "Thanks for the cupcake."

Natsuki immediately looked flustered and her face grew red.

"W-why are you thanking me? It's not like I..."

 _Heeere we go..._

"Made them for you or anything."

"I didn't say you did." Gabriel said gently. "I still think they're good regardless. And I appreciate you giving me one."

Natsuki's face grew redder than Gabriel thought physically possible and she turned her head away and refused to make any kind of eye contact. "Y-you're welcome!"

Yuri returns to the table, carrying a tea set. She carefully places a teacup in front of each of them before setting down the teapot next to the cupcake tray.

"Nice tea set." Gabriel commented.

"Thank you." Yuri said. "The teachers are nice enough to let us keep it here. After all, doesn't a a hot cup of help you enjoy a good book?"

"That's our Yuri!" Sayori said proudly. "Always the one to impress!"

"Eh?! T-That's not..." Insulted, Yuri looks away as she goes back to taking her seat. "I mean that, you know..."

"It's all good." Gabriel said. "I'm not a connoisseur by any means, but a cup of tea once in a while is nice." Gabriel never went wrong with Lipton. He drank it quite a lot at his aunt and uncle's restaurant when he wasn't in the mood for soda. He usually preferred energy drinks because of their flavor.

Also energy drinks didn't make him piss as much.

"I'm glad..." Yuri faintly smiles to herself in relief.

Sayori smiled to see Yuri being more at ease.

"So why did want to come join this club?" Natsuki asked. "Was it only because Sayori is here?"

 _It's complicated._ "I would be lying if I said Sayori didn't have some influence for me coming here," Gabriel said carefully. "But, hey, she looked like she was having plenty of fun here by what she's said about it, and she's been on me about checking out a club, I thought I'd give this place a shot."

Natsuki nodded. The answer seemed to be enough for her. "I guess. When I first heard about this place I was surprised that someone like Sayori was club president, but she does a really good job."  
"I agree." Yuri said. "Sayori is quite the leader."

Sayori blushed lightly and laughed as she scratched her neck in modesty. "I-I do what I can. The teachers even let Yuri keep her tea set here, and they let Natsuki store her manga in the closet."

 _So Sayori_ is _the club president._ Gabriel thought. _In the games good and bad ending, Sayori had become self-aware, telling MC about her knowledge about it all._ He glanced at Sayori who was still all gushy about the praises. _If this was going the route of the bad ending, the way things are, I doubt she would be beating around the bush about it all and go straight to the point of taking me. If this is the good ending... I doubt I'd be here, is that's the case. She seemed pretty sad but accepted letting the game end..._

"I was honestly surprised myself when it really sunk in." Gabriel laughed. "I didn't think Sayori was even that into literature, let alone enthusiastic about it enough to start a club around it."

"Yuri got me into it!" Sayori said. "We have the same class, and she's always quiet and I started trying to get her to talk, and she showed me books, poetry, all that stuff!" Sayori said really fast. "I thought it was all really cool when I really looked at it, and all the other clubs looked boring, and so we started the club! Yuri's vice president, but she really should have been _The_ President!"

"I-I-I'm not goo-..." Yuri stammered and sunk into herself. She then quietly said: "I'm not a good fit for it..."

"You totally are!" Sayori argued.

"U-unfortunately!" Yuri said quick, trying to change the subject. "Th-this as a subject for a club is fairly new here, so it's hard to attract other student's attention for it."

"If people weren't so afraid to try something new, this wouldn't be a problem." Natsuki said with an edge. "It's like people get weirded out by things so out of the norm their repelled by it!"

 _Or if you're like me, and are refused any_ choice _and have to roll with it._ "I see. That sounds pretty difficult."

"Yup, yup!" Sayori chirped. "But we just got to show everyone that it's worthwhile! That's why we have to work hard with the festival around the corner! We can _totally_ get a good thing going for the club before we graduate!" Sayori threw her fist into the air. "Right, guys!?"

"We'll do our best." Yuri confirmed.

"You know it!" Natsuki says with confidence.

They were all very enthusiastic about the thought of it. The way things are going now, Sayori is lucky to have them. Gabriel wished the best for them. Assuming things will continue. He could put effort into this club on the side while he deals with his own problems. He's had encounters with a book or two. As long as they don't suspect him.

"So, Tardis," Yuri asks, Gabriel looking to her with a nod and smile. "what kind of things do you like to read?"

 _Careful..._ "Nothing specific, really. I don't read often to be honest, but I'm not against taking a look at something new. I've even read some manga here and there if it means anything."

Natsuki's head suddenly perks up. Gabriel had gotten on her good side.

"W-well, as far as manga goes..." Yuri trailed off. She cleared her throat. "That's a fair view on it all, I guess. I hope being here will make you more interested in broadening your horizons. The world of literature is a very fun ride if you're willing to give it more of a chance."

"You seem very passionate about it. What are you into?"

"Well, let's see..." Yuri closes her eyes in thought as she traced the rim of her teacup with her finger. After a moment she opens her eyes and a broader smile crosses her face as she speaks. "My favorites are usually novels that build deep and complex fantasy worlds. The level of creativity and craftsmanship behind them is amazing to me." Her face gradually grew serious as she spoke. "And telling a good story in such a foreign world is equally impressive." Yuri continued on, clearly passionate about her reading. He knew where she was coming from, but the foreign world concept was a little _real_ for him right then, and he disagreed in his head. Though he kept silent while she spoke. "But you know, I like a lot of things. Stories with deep psychological elements usually immerse me as well. Isn't it amazing how a writer can so deliberately take advantage of your own lack of imagination to completely throw you through a loop?" She looked lost in her own world for a moment before she continued. "Anyway, I've been reading a lot of horror lately..."

"I've read a few horror books." Gabriel said with a nod. He didn't have the wide branch Yuri seemed to have, but he knew a few things. Though if the books were even in their world was another question altogether.

... An important one if Yuri asks him about them, now that he thought about it.

Oops.

"Wow!" Sayori was surprised. "I didn't think you were into that stuff, Yuri! Someone as nice as you."

"I guess you could say that." Yuri said with a small chuckle. "But if a story makes me think, or takes me to another world, then I really can't put it down."

 _In my case, my consent wasn't really a factor._

"Surreal horror is often very successful at changing the look at the world, if only for a brief moment."

"Ugh." Natsuki said with a sour look. "I hate horror."

"Oh?" Yuri asks, genuinely curious. "Why is that?"

"Well, I just..." Natsuki's eyes dart over to Gabriel for a split second. This was something that Gabriel didn't understand in the game, even now. "Never mind."

"Natsuki usually likes to write about cute things." Sayori informed.

"W-What?" Natsuki said in shock. "What gives you that idea?"

"In the last club meeting you left behind a piece of paper." Sayori said. "I think it was called-"

"Don't say it out loud!" Natsuki suddenly yelled. "And give that back!"

"Okay, okay!" Sayori agreed as she got up from her seat, giggling. "Your cupcakes, your poems... everything you do is just as cute as you are-" Sayori slided up behind Natsuki and puts her hands on her shoulders.  
" _I'm not cute!_ " Natsuki squeaked. The way she was flustered, he thought Natsuki kind of was. Gabriel thought it would be easier for her if she just owned it.

"So, you write your own poems, huh?"

She adverted her attention from Sayori to look at Gabriel. "Eh? Well, I guess sometimes. Why do you care?"

 _Be polite..._ "I just think that it's pretty cool. You should share them sometime."

"N-no!" Natsuki said, taken aback. She adverted her eyes. "You wouldn't... like them..."

"Not that confident yet, huh?"

"I understand how Natsuki feels." Yuri said. "Sharing that level of writing takes more than just confidence. The truest form of writing is writing to oneself." She tuned into her own world again. "You must be willing to open up to your readers, exposing your vulnerabilities and showing even the deepest reaches of your heart."

"Well, you have lots of writing experience too, right Yuri?" Sayori asked. "Maybe you could really help out Natsuki by showing yours! You're probably the best at it, so maybe you could be the one."

Yuri didn't like that idea. She immediately looked uneasy and sunk back into her seat, looking away from everyone.

"I guess it's the same for Yuri."

"Aww!" Sayori looked down crested. "I wanted to read everyones poems!"

If Gabriel remembered correctly, this was when Monika would make the suggestion for everyone to write a poem and share them the following day. Although everything seemed to be falling into place, he wondered how it would pan to that-

"I got an idea!" Sayori clapped her hands together and hopped up and down.

 _Oh, there we go._

Natsuki and Yuri look quizzically at Sayori.

"When we go home today, we'll all write poems!" Sayori suggested. "Then tomorrow we'll all show each other! Everyone gets a turn!"

Natsuki: "U-um..."

Yuri: "..."

They didn't seem really on board. Gabriel felt for them. But as far as he was concerned, this would go on Tardis' record.

"And now since Tardis is with us, we'll be closer than ever! The club's spirit will be stronger than ever!" Sayori looked to him. "Isn't that right?"

"Well..." Gabriel drawled. All three girls looked at him questioningly. "Am I officially a member then?"

"Of course!" Sayori said as if it didn't even need to be asked. Yuri nodded with a smile, muttering a confirmation. He looked to Natsuki.

Natsuki's brows furrowed and she looked confused as to why he was looking at her, then she looked around and saw Yuri and Sayori looking at her curiously. It took a moment to click that they were referring to her earlier statement. She cleared her throat and blushed, turning away. "W-Well, duh!" She confirmed. "I didn't make those cupcakes for nothing!"

Sayori's eyes lit up and she yelled in excitement. "Then it's settled! We're officially a club now, with four members!"

"Welcome to the Literature Club!" Yuri greeted.

Natsuki didn't say anything. Not that she needed to.

"And I also agree to do the poem thing." Gabriel added.

" _YAY!_ " Sayori was overjoyed. Natsuki and Yuri however lost all enthusiam and were still very uncomfortable with the idea. "I guess we can call that a session for today. Just remember to bring a poem for tomorrow guys!"

They reluctantly agreed. Now that the meeting was settled, and that Gabriel was set where he needed to be, the girls talked while Natsuki and Yuri cleaned up their food. Well, he was in the Literature Club. So far he put the proper impressions he needed to on the girls, and it should be smoother sailing from there.

"Hey, Tardis," Sayori said, walking up to Gabriel. "since we're already here, do you want to walk home together?"

Gabriel recalled that MC and Sayori didn't start becoming buddy-buddy again until the start of the Literature Club. Maybe that would be a good time to get a better read on Sayori, see what she is really thinking.

"Sure. Let's-

"A-Actually." Yuri intervened. Gabriel eyes widened a little before he caught himself. He remembered they would have just gone back to the house after that with no interruptions. Yuri went on, shying away a little from the attention now being on her. "P-Perhaps it would be wise to go and see the school nurse? You still don't look very well, Tardis."

Gabriel frowned, rubbing his cheek. It still did feel clammy. He's been stressed that entire day, so it only made sense that his body wasn't in tip-top shape. "I guess you're right. Thanks for your concern, Yuri."

Yuri smiled shyly. "W-Well, we are all a part of the Literature Club. We have to watch out for our companions."

Gabriel blinked. This was certainly new. "Well, um... Thank you, Yuri."

Yuri fidgeted for a moment before excusing herself to leave.

"Ehh!" Sayori whined. "But I have things to do at home when club was over! I can't be late for it!"

 _Ah, well._ "That's alright. We'll just meet up in the morning, okay?"

"Okay." Sayori said, down crested. He actually felt a little bad for her. She followed Yuri out the door, Natsuki already having left before all of them. "Be safe, okay?"

"I will." Gabriel agreed and watched them go. He was now alone in the classroom, and he took a moment to relax, leaning against one of the desks as he looked around. He exhaled and really took the room in. Twenty-Thirty desks, a note board to his right, and a closet behind him, Natsuki's manga on one of those shelves inside. He looked at his hands again, hands of a stranger.

 _This is really going to be my whole week, isn't it?_

Gabriel sighed to himself. He wondered if his actual body was still back in his world, just lying there on the bed he slept in on the night before. How long until somebody finally notices he is gone? Perhaps Marvin if he wasn't too busy. The days where he is now had lined up well with where he was, in both cases he would have woken up Monday morning. His aunt and uncle were out of town and left some suit they had on hand look over the place, someone on decent terms with Gabriel but not close enough to really be that concerned. Once they call and he doesn't pick up they'll just have someone take his shift for a few days until they decide to send the cops to check on him, which seemed to most likely to happen. Marvin could be the one to check up on him if he had a day off before then. He did have an emergency key. Perhaps they'll find him.

 _Assuming the body isn't already dead. Or will be._

Gabriel shook his head of those thoughts. He can't think like that. He dares _not_ to. He took up Yuri on her suggestion and he went to the nurse's station. The nurse was on her way out when Gabriel went there. He was just in time to ask for something to help him out, and the lady informed him that she was just there to take over because the actual nurse was down with the flu. She still gave him some aspirin and he thanked her. He dry swallowed the pills. He thought maybe he could catch up with Sayori, but running after her didn't seem like something Tardis would do. He would just have to walk back alone.

He walked down one of the school's halls, trying to remember his way back to the front door of the building. He ended up getting lost, letting out a groan of frustration by it all. He found a directory and was at pleased to know he at least wasn't too far away from the entrance. He hoped they would have some map of the school online, just some way to prevent getting lost again.

He was whistled a tune as he strolled through the halls, looking into empty rooms out of curiosity. He glanced into another room and passed it like all the others, but he stopped when he processed what it was and stepped back to take a better look.

It was a music room. It was as big as you would expect for an average High School, but they did have a decent array of instruments and wide enough space for students to play them. He saw a few violins, guitars, a saxophone, and a piano. There were other instruments to name, but the piano was the one that made him stop. He approached it. It was definitely a fancy one to be sure.

"A Yamaha Upright, huh?" Gabriel mused. "An Oak one, too. Nice."

He honestly didn't know very much about naming brand of instruments, but his mother owned a Yamaha. She taught piano for a living. Gabriel didn't take to it like she had hoped, but he caught enough of how to play it, albeit at a basic level.

Gabriel frowned. "So this is where _she_ practiced, huh?"

His thoughts went to Monika. It wouldn't be hard to imagine how she would have looked if she was real, given her color scheme wasn't so abnormal as the rest of the clubs.

 _Man, I wish there was a piano in here..._ Monika had said when it was Just Monika. _I never got to finish that song I was working on. I never got the chance to play it for you. Well... it is what it is, right? No sense in having any regrets. I already get to be here with you forever._

" _That_ didn't pan out too well." Gabriel muttered to himself. It was certainly creepy in his first run through. He played a few keys at random on instrument. He laughed a little to himself and remembered the first few lines of "Your Reality" and played them. After that he looked at the piano a moment longer before turning around to leave. He went back to whistling, this time actually whistling "Your Reality". He went through the doorway and into the hallway.

The piano played behind him.

Gabriel froze. Four keys on the piano played behind his back. _Dun, duh-duh, dunnn._ The hairs on his neck stood on end. He slowly turned to look at it.

There was no one there. The room was just as empty as had left it.

"Hello?" He asked aloud. "Is any one there?"

There was no response. Could he have imagined it? The sound was low, like someone was only lightly tapping the keys. And on top of that he had broken down twice in one day, and wasn't feeling 100%.

"If it was Monika, there would be no point in the mind games." Gabriel muttered to himself. It had to have been in his head. Gabriel turned to walk away.

He collided with someone, knocking papers out of their hand and both of them landing on the ground. Gabriel cursed and the other squawked in surprise.

"Ah, Shit-Christ..." Gabriel said in frustration. He got up to his knees and quickly went to pick the papers up. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay."

Gabriel gathered all lose papers that weren't already scooped up by the person in question. He finally looked up as he handed the papers.

It was a woman, and with the lack of a uniform and mature aura, he assumed a teacher. She had long chestnut brown hair that was tied in a braided ponytail that slung over her shoulder, but like Natsuki, her hair had more than one style, though this one was regular looking in comparison, being that she had the hair on the sides of her hair out in bangs that reached just the top of her bosom. She wore a white long-sleeved blouse shirt with frills on the collar of the neck and wrists, though nothing flashy. She also wore a long black skirt that went all the way to the ankles. Looking at her face she donned thin narrow-rimmed glasses. Like other girl he's made association with she was good looking, but in this case stunning in her mature and adult physique, and actually looked rather normal compared to everyone else, with the exception of her eyes. They were a warm orange, like a summer sunset.

Gabriel handed her the papers. "I wasn't watching where I was going. Sorry."

She chuckled warmly. "Please, don't worry about it. Accidents happen."

They both stood up, the woman adjusting the papers in her hand. She was a little taller than him in his present state, a few inches more. Gabriel estimated that she was just a few inches off of six-foot, or is six-foot.

Although he wanted to be _anywhere_ but near that room, so he nodded politely and excused himself walked fast down the hall.

"Excuse me!" She called him before he could get far. He turned to her. She pointed to the music room. "I heard some keys playing from down the hall." A small smile crept her face. "Was that you?"

"I was just pressing random keys." He said quickly. "I'm sorry for intruding, I know I'm not in the class. Sorry. I have to go."

He nodded jerkily to her and turned to walk away before she got another word in. She didn't pursue him any more so he took that as her giving up.

He rubbed down his face with his hand and it was then he realized he was sweating. Grimacing at the feeling of his face being damp from rubbing the sweat everywhere he switched to using his sleeve.

...

"... after that, I was at a loss of what I should be doing." Gabriel said. "Like I said, the piano thing could be just me, my mind freaking out on me with everything going on. It's just one high ball of _fuckery_ after another. I just..." Gabriel sighed. He shook his head and spread his hands. "Fuck, man."

"Alright." Tsubasa said after he was done. "I've got to admit, you're in one hell of a shitter."

"Yeah."

"Now _I_ have a question."

"What's that?"

"What's to keep me from talking about this with anyone?"

"I don't think you will." Gabriel said without hesitation.

At that, Tsubasa was genuinely surprised. He looked at Gabriel with curiosity and confusion. "Really? And why do you say that?"

Gabriel stopped for a moment to think about it, his eyebrows furrowed in thought as chose the way he answered carefully. "Well... I'm not sure if anyone else in your club would even hear me out the same way, even if I could figure out how to make it sound not so..." Gabriel tried to find a good word to use, but gave up and sighed. "So _stupid_. But you wouldn't _care_ enough to tell anyone."

"Elaborate."

"I mean, like, you're not listening to me because you're concerned or anything. You're listening to me because you think I'm crazy enough to be vaguely interesting, but not enough to have me 'get help'." Gabriel used finger quotes.

"Or you could just be lying." Tsubasa retorted. "Maybe you're just trying to pull some elaborate, bad joke."

"Stop." Gabriel said. They both did and faced each other on the side walk. "I'm from another world." Gabriel said flatly. "Look me in the eye and tell me I'm lying."

Tsubasa huffed out his nose and did so. For one thing, he certainly saw no hint of jest in them. They looked tired. The way they were moving a little made him seem anxious. But the main thing to note was that they weren't wavering. He's talked plenty of times with other members of the club, and there were plenty who would make high claims on either something "Great" by their standards, or just trivial, and he's heard them enough to get a feel of what's see-through bullshit and what isn't.

Gabriel's eyes, however, never wavered.

Tsubasa shrugged. " _You_ certainly believe it."

"Then I would like to ask if you could probably help me."

"How could I even help in any of this?"

"Nothing really big or out of your way. I would like to just talk about this with someone if possible, maybe get some kind of... Advice, I guess."

"What kind of advice could I give you here?"

"I don't know, man... I..."

Tsubasa looked up and saw they were nearing his house; it was only two doors down. He told Gabriel this, who nodded in acknowledgement. There were a few moments of awkward silence between them.

"I can't tell you any different from what you've concluded." Tsubasa finally said. "Just wait it out."

"What else would you suggest?"

"Keep a notepad with you, keep track of any weird shit like the Monika thing. You said that things are repeating with the games self-reset to the week following up with the festival?"

"Yeah."

"Try to write down what you remember. See if there are any notable changes to any pattern. That is if there is anything going on tomorrow."

Gabriel recalled that Natsuki and Yuri are supposed to have a fight over creative difference in their poems. "A thing or two."

"Whatever you can recall, write it down and bring it to me after your club is done for the day. We'll look it over."

"I don't want to hold you up if it's that out of your way, man."

"Like you said," Tsubasa said with a smirk. "you're crazy enough to be vaguely interesting." They stopped in front of Tsubasa's house, a nice little cozy looking home, a two story building. Gabriel couldn't see much of it, but noted the bared gate. "Well, I'll have to call it a day. If I don't head in now, sis will kill me." He held out his hand to Gabriel. "Be seeing you around."

Gabriel smirked and gripped Tsubasa's hand. "Tomorrow."

They shook.

Tsubasa had informed Gabriel on which direction to take from there to get back to his house after telling Tsubasa the general address. With that they parted ways and Gabriel walked home what was left of the light of the falling sun over the horizon.

Gabriel walked with a skip in his step while whistling a tune as the traffic around him died down to almost nothing, him being practically alone with the exception of the occasional car. The day started out as one of the most traumatizing days he ever had the displeasure of waking up to, but at least things were looking up a little. He integrated with the club about as well as MC did. It's pretty questionable with Sayori, but overall...

Sayori. Natsuki. Yuri. And the absent Monika.

 _Will I really be able to pull this off?_ Gabriel thought to himself. _More importantly, can I really get out of here?_ He sighed to himself. _Just take it one thing at a time, I guess. Now..._ He scratched his chin. _How the hell do I go about writing a poem?_

Gabriel pondered this as he walked past a bush as he was now walking next to a small empty park. As his ankle brushed against the bush he felt something swipe at his ankle.

Startled he jumped back away from the bush, cursing aloud. His heart had jumped to his throat and he swallowed hard and looked at plant cautiously. He gently tapped his foot against the base of the bush, feeling around for anything.

He felt something small bump hard against his shoe. It then followed with a little airy sound.

Gabriel got to his knees and opened the base of the bush to reveal what was inside.

A kitten hissed at him. It was a black kitten, with the exception of its front paws. From the looks of it to Gabriel it had to have been around 6 to 8 weeks old, and it was looking at him with fierce blue eyes. It's hair along his spine was standing on end and it was watching him intently with a low growl.

It was about as intimidating as one would expect from a kitten.

"Well, aren't you a feisty little thing?" Gabriel asked the feline.

It answered with its little hiss.

Gabriel couldn't help but smile. His hand slowly went into his plastic bag (He tried not to continue startling it with any fast movement) and grabbed one of his sticks of jerky, opening the plastic wrapping around it. He presented it to the kitten.

It had hissed one more time before it caught whiff of the meat, and all intimidation tactics went out the window. It took a cautious sniff of the stick then it took a tentative bite. It then attacked jerky stick and gnawed at it with reckless abandon. Gabriel watched with amused fascination as the furry little thing eat. Gabriel reached out and gently placed a hand on the kittens back. It tensed up for a moment but when he began stroking its back he felt the thing vibrate under his hand as it purred.

"It's alright." Gabriel said soothingly as he gently petted it. He continued saying variations of this as the kitten finished eating.

Gabriel noticed as he petted it that it was rather thin for a kitten. It took Gabriel a minute to realize it was eating the way it was because it was starving. He looked around the park and saw there were very few places for cats to hide around the area he was in. He left the kitten where it was eating the last bits as he looked to see if there were any other cats in the vicinity in hopes of finding the mother. After a few minute look around he found nothing, not even the sound of anything running away from him.

He heard a tiny meow behind him. He looked at saw that the kitten had followed him, sitting patiently with a tilted head looking up at him curiously.

"You all alone, little guy?"

" _Meow!_ "

He bent down again and stroked the little feline. It purred and pressed itself against his hand. He scratched the left side of its neck and it practically melted into his hand.

"How did you manage to get all the way here all alone?"

It continued to purr.

Gabriel smirked. "Guess we're both in the same boat, huh? Lost in a big world we barely know anything about."

It then started attacking his hand playfully, biting and kicking it. He met this with fighting back the kitten playfully with his hand.

"But you're probably made a steel. You're taking it all in better stride than I am."

The kitten stopped playing and instead went to grooming the back of his hand, the sandpapery tongue grating against his skin. His grin turned into a full blown smile. He picked up the kitten who looked confused momentarily before placing it in the cradle of his arm. The kitten eased up and relaxed in his arm, absently grooming its paws.

"Come on." He said to it, walking out of the park with his new little friend. "We'll keep each other company for a while."

...

He got home not too long after finding the kitten, which he had found to be a male. After raiding the kitchen for food (He went for something simple and got himself some ramen) and water for the kitten, settling to give the feline jerky until he could buy it proper food. He went to the bedroom he woke up in and got comfortable. He changed his clothing to a simple t-shirt and shorts. He plopped into the rotating chair in front of the rooms studying desk and stretched into his chair as the kitten slurped the water on the desk where he set him. He opened the cup ramen and the steam wafted out of artificial chicken, making his stomach growl and his mouth water. He wolfed down the noodles while going back and forth with jerky.

After finishing his food and letting out a groan of satisfaction, he went through his school bag and grabbed the homework that the classes gave him. As he said to Tsubasa, he had a partial idea of what to do and what he couldn't figure out he went online to find what he needed. He honestly did what he could, but as long as Tardis had a passing grade he shouldn't care too much in the long run. It took him a little over an hour.

Next, he searched the room for any kind of notepad to do what Tsubasa had asked of him to write down the day's progression verses how it was when he played the game. There weren't many specific things he could jot down in-game, just the general idea of what went down and he did the same thing when writing down what happened today since he had already told Tsubasa everything. He looked around the room for anything blank to write on and found old notebooks in the closet. Some were from middle school, and one was basically unused, a three ringed binder, the first few pages used for the last few days of Tardis time at Middle School. He was writing down what would happen the next day when the kitten got bored and decided to tackle his pencil.

"Gah!" Gabriel chuckled. "No! Stop! I need that to do things!"

The cat wrestled his writing hand, trying to fight for the pencil. He gave up the pencil to the kitten who was having a field day owning that pencil. Gabriel grabbed a new one out of a holder and finished the rest of the prediction. After finishing that up, he only had one thing left to do, and it was the one he was dreading the most.

"Okay." Gabriel put his hands together and rubbed them together. "Poetry!"

He placed a blank sheet from the middle school notebook on the desk and had the pencil ready write something down. He sat there and waited until something hit him. Five minutes passed. He wrote the first word, hated it, erased it, and waited again.

After an hour of this, he recognized there was some kind of problem.

"Fucking hell..." He muttered to himself. He was never into to poetry, but it looked so easy to write. He wanted it to look presentable and he didn't trust just making it some complicated sounding cocktail of big words that he probably didn't know the definition of. "How do they make it look so easy?" Could he go the way Natsuki does and find the beauty in simplicity? No, the last thing he would want to do is try and appease to a specific character, and copying their style would probably lean toward that outcome.

Gabriel sat there with his arms crossed looking at the paper. He just wanted to write something generic that could be considered neutral and take whatever bad criticisms they had for him, but if he were to go that route they may question his character. At least Sayori would.

Sayori. He forgot to check up on her when he got back.

 _Shit._

Ah, well. He decided he would just talk to her the following morning when they would walk to the school. He unfortunately couldn't find any form of journal, either anywhere in the room or on Tardis computer. He would just have to wing it until then. Hopefully he could pull off being Tardis.

 _The truest form of writing is writing to oneself._

Yuri's words echoed in his mind.

"Writing to oneself..." Gabriel looked at the paper a moment longer. His hand shortly found itself on the paper.

 _ **Looking In.**_

 _I stand on the looking glass,_

 _gazing down with an uneasy smile._

 _I watched them dance and sing until they couldn't take it,_

 _but still they waltz,_

 _red strings on their elbows and knees._

 _I fall in,_

 _tumbling through the sand._

 _I can't breathe._

Gabriel looked at the words on the paper. He looked to his left to see the kitten sleeping on the desk curled into a ball, pencil between his paws, chest going up and down. He twitched in his sleep, Gabriel's hand covering the kittens body. He relaxes and curls more into himself as he sleeps. Gabriel added one last word to the poem.

 _Meow._

"Good enough, I guess." Gabriel said. With that, the day was done. The energy drinks from earlier were causing him to crash and he yawned involuntarily. He looked at the clock and saw it was 10 PM. It would have been an appropriate time for him to call it a day anyway. He left the kitten on the desk to sleep peacefully and turned off the lamp, casting the room in a lunar glow. Gabriel yawned again as he plopped on the bed.

He thought briefly how it was the bed of a stranger. About the piano. And about the club and its diverse members.

Then he fell asleep.

 _I want to be clear right now; I have never had any experience writing poetry, but since it is one of the main mechanics of the DDLC game I thought it only proper to put one in for Gabriel in place of just picking words that would appease the girls in game. If any of you have experience with poetry, I would much appreciate criticism in that regard since that is one of my main concerns as I go along with this story._

 _If you've come across and it's up your alley, please favorite and follow. Please leave a review, any criticism is welcome, even if you hated it._

 _-Your Boy Beta_


	4. Chapter 4

Gabriel groaned as he awoke, his vision blurry and mouth dry. He smacked his mouth and it felt like his mouth had a layer of half-dried slime, a loathed feeling. He inhaled deeply and blinked until his vision cleared up. The room was in the blue glow of the early morning, a sign of the sun soon rising over the horizon, that much he could make out.

 _Work._ He thought groggily. _It's like, what, four hours before opening? I hate waking up before the alarm... I know I won't be able to get a little more sleep at this-_

He looked at the unfamiliar layout of the room and he momentarily panicked. He felt lost and scared until the events of yesterday came to him and he sighed to himself. At least that feeling of lost fear was a bit familiar to him. He rose his hands to his face waving them around in his vision. His barrowed hands.

"Yup." He muttered to himself. The sound of the voice making him frown. "Still here."

He heard a deep breath on his shoulder. He turned his head and he felt fuzziness rub against him. The kitten from last night had at some point hopped off the desk and climbed into bed with Gabriel to use him as the world's largest pillow. He laid across his shoulder, the rest of his tiny body curled in the hollow of Gabriel's neck. The kitten had taken a deep inhale in his sleep, stretched, and snuggled deeper into his neck, tickling Gabriel a little.

He couldn't help but smile. However, the moment would have to be short lived since he would have to get up anyway. He gently gripped the kitten and slowly moved his body onto the pillow so he could get up. He managed to do so without disturbing the kitten. Leaving the tiny feline there as he got up slowly to shake the bed as little as possible he stretched in relief, his joints popping in a few places. He yawned and scratched places. The homework and other papers were still on the nightstand so he grabbed them all and put them in his school bag.

He looked out the window, and as he assumed, the sun was barely peaking over the horizon, the edge of a hot coin. He glanced at the clock on his nightstand. 5:37 in the morning. He'd have to be out of there by 7:30 - 7:45. Plenty of time to clean up. Looking down out the window he could even see someone walking down the street in a suit with a briefcase to make his daily commute.

"I do not envy you, buddy..." Gabriel said. The restaraunt opened at four, and he'd have to show up at nine and getting off from work varied for him. The hours didn't get to him as much as the days could. He would avoid working weekends if he could. It wasn't friend related, Marvin's schedule was a cluster-fuck, but weekends were the busiest and rushed, hurrying to attend to family's and the like.

Gabriel froze. Family.

 _Shit!_ He yelled internally. _This dude's parents! How could I not have thought about it!_ He looked at his closed door. _They weren't here yesterday morning, otherwise they'd have been there before Sayori. Did they come back last night?_ Many questions about this ran through his head.

He opened the door of his bedroom and looked down the hallway. He looked left, which lead to the bathroom and the stairs, and then to the right, where there were two doors. He walked lightly down the hall to the doors. He went under the assumption that the parents room would be on the same side of the hall as his so he went to check that one first. When he got to the door he put his ear against it, listening closely for any kind of movement. Nothing.

He thought over if he should knock and simply ask if anyone was there, but he wasn't prepared to try and play a son of a family he never interacted with. He wasn't winging it well with Sayori, so there was no way in hell he'd dupe them. He decided to peak in instead and see if they're in there. If they are, he'd just walk to the school early and mentally prepare himself for the day as best he could. And avoid them as much as possible.

Like most people.

He gripped the knob and turned it slowly, hearing the soft clicks of the doors mechanisms. When the knob stuck he softly opens the door. The door creaked loudly with the movement, making him wince. If they were there they would certainly have heard that. He didn't feel the point of being sneaky. He opened the door.

It was a bedroom. It was fairly bland with basic furniture about and no decorations except for the few pictures on the nightstands on either side of the bed, the bed being a queen size. And there was no one in the room.

"Oh, thank Christ..." Gabriel said normally, letting out a huff of relief. He wasn't sure when they would decide to pop up, but for the moment he was alone.

" _Meow!_ "

He looked down the hall to see the kitten running up to him clumsily. He stopped half-a-foot from Gabriel, then after gaining his bearings plopped his butt on the ground and curled his tail around him as he looked up to Gabriel with a crooked head.

"Not completely alone." He said.

" _Meow!_ "

"Come on, let's get cleaned up."

...

After taking a shower with a Japanese-like bathroom ( _I dub thine land "Japanima"_ ), and after getting dressed, he went downstairs to get breakfast. He was surprised to find that the kitten wasn't against getting bathed. If anything, he was enjoying it to the point that he felt the kitten purr as he applied soap. The kittens fur was now a shade lighter, getting the dirt out of him.

He raided the fridge to see what he could make. He spotted a half-eaten package of bacon and a carton of eggs. There was also a loaf of bread he remembered from the night before when he got his cup ramen. He settled for the simple breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast. He grabbed butter to slicken the pan and went to work. The kitten sat on the counter next to the stove watching Gabriel with curious interest.

He was done quickly and he set the food on a plate, and a smaller portion on a saucer, a little pile of eggs and bacon cut into small pieces. The kitten smelled the food curiously. Gabriel made a show to take a bite of his own to show it was meant to be eaten. The kitten seemed to understand ate the food with gusto, wolfing down the contents.

After he was done eating he went back to his room to grab the school bag before coming down again to the kitchen. He grabbed the kitten when he was done eating and placed him on the ground, which the kitten took to start sniffing around and scanning the area. While the kitten ventured he looked at his at his phone for the time. 6:28.

He thought it'd be a good time to look through Tardis phone, see if he can get a read on him. The first thing he went through was his texts.

The number of contacts were rather small for someone in High School, but then he remembered that he Tardis had self-admitted to being a recluse. A good portion of the names he didn't recognize, which was obvious but he still found this surprising. It's still hard to wrap his head around the lives of people in the game outside the Literature Club. The few names he could recognize was a few classmates he had talked to the day before, but the obvious ones he could name were Sayori and Tardis' mother and father.

He went into the text history.

Tardis had texted very few people, and the last text he had received was on April 9th. Looking at the calendar it was then April 18th. The person he texted was Sayori. He wanted to check that out momentarily after looking through the parents. He was surprised from what he read. Not that there was anything, but there wasn't much communication. He read a short text from his father talking about how the business trip could take longer than expected and that they'll be gone for a few more months.

"'Parents always away' cliché, huh...?"

He really couldn't find any emotion in the texts. It was just straightforward communication back and forth, almost like talking business himself. As much as that probably sucked for Tardis, Gabriel noted how that worked in his favor. Whatever was between Tardis and his parents wasn't Gabriel's business in the long run.

"Best of luck though, dude."

He went to the texts with Sayori next. He frowned looking at them.

One of the more repeating things he noticed was that Tardis would often ignore texts from Sayori. She would often send a basic _Hi!_ with some kind of smiley face, and whenever Tardis _would_ respond it would be short and blunt, not that different from Tardis texting his parents. Coversations, if they ever held any, would be short with Sayori talking up a storm and Tardis sending quick confirmation responses which usually ended with the conversations to stop abruptly because either Tardis claimed to be busy or Sayori gave up on trying to hold a half-assed discussion. This went on and off quite often.

Gabriel has had associates where he's done the same thing with, but none of them were friends like Sayori was, except one. The only friend he could say he had at the time was Marvin, and they were on very good terms with each other, but not best friends. No, his real best friend was something special.

...Gabriel couldn't help but feel bad for Sayori. Sayori had depression on some level. He wasn't sure how much of it was amped up by Monika, but she didn't give it to her. Monika just made it grow.

Tardis doesn't know what he has. And sadly he wouldn't get the full picture until Sayori...

"Monika isn't here." He said to himself. "Sayori won't be driven to that."

He didn't want to think about it. It wasn't his business. He instead took the time to look over the homework again, along with his personal notes. He kept at it for some time, even to the point that he made corrections on the homework and before he knew it he looked at the clock on his phone.

7:22.

He looked at his feet to see the kitten curled up next to his foot, sleeping once again. He packed up his papers and dropped them into the bag. He moved his foot away gently, the kitten curling into himself into a ball and taking a deep breath before falling into a deeper sleep. He placed the extra eggs on the saucer, leaving it on the floor for whenever the kitten got hungry as well with a little bowl of water. After putting the dishes in the sink to soak he went to the front door where his shoes waited for him.

He momentarily thought if he should go to Sayori's house next door to see if she wanted to walk to school again. He said he would get her the day before.

Then he remembered Tardis wouldn't have. There would be the routine of him walking ahead and her catching up.

He got his shoes on and went to school.

...

The school day ended, and it turned to the beginning of the second day of the Literature Club. The school day wasn't any different from the last one, nothing important of note. He held genric avoided conversation with other students, whatever associates Tardis has made that did talk to him Gabriel had kept short and generic, and he had to borrow a pencil because he forgot them at home.

With the last bell ringing he got up and went to the 3rd-year section to the club. He walked up the stairs and opened the door.

"Yay!" Sayori immediately greeted, surprise hug tackling Gabriel into another jumpy embrace. Gabriel grunted on impact but stood his ground. "You came again!"

"Well, you all said I was in. I keep my word." Gabriel said with a slight wheeze. "Oxygen running low."

Sayori giggled and let go, hopping back playfully. Looking around he noticed he was the last one to come into the club.

"Thanks for keeping your promise, Tardis." Yuri greeted. "I hope this isn't too overwhelming of a commitment for you." She glanced down nervously. "Making you dive headfirst into literature when you're not accustomed to it..."

"Oh, come on!" Natsuki interjected. "Like he deserves any slack. Sayori told me you didn't even want to join any clubs this year." She pointed a finger in his direction in an accusing tone. "And last year, too! I don't know if you plan to just come here and hang out, or what..." Natsuki placed a hand on her hip. "But if you don't take us seriously, then you won't see the end of it."

"Ehhh, Natsuki..." Sayori pointed out with a knowing smile. "You say that, but you keep your manga in here."

Natsuki's eyes shot wide open and her face turned red, her tough exterior melted away. She stuttered between saying word that started with S and one with M, not sure to say either "Sayori" or "Manga".

" _Manga is literature!_ " She suddenly blurted out. Swiftly defeated, she went to her desk and plopped in her seat.

"Don't worry guys-" Sayori assured confidently, with some amount of pride. "Tardis always gives his best as long as he's having fun. He helps me with busywork without me even asking." She went to her hand to start counting off of her fingers. "Like cooking, cleaning my room..."

"How dependable..." Yuri said with mild admiration.

"Well, I mean..." Gabriel shrugged. "Sayori, your room can get pretty messy. Also you almost set your house on fire once."

"Is that so...?" Sayori laughs nervously.

"You two are really good friends, aren't you?" Yuri asked. "I might be a little jealous..."

"How come?" Sayori asked with a smile. "You and Tardis can become good friends too!"

"U-um..." Yuri fidgeted in her seat, clearly uncomfortable in the situation Sayori put her in. She looked down at her hands, her face hidden in her long purple hair, no doubt red in the face.

Gabriel lightly touched Sayori on the elbow. She looked up. "Hm?"

Gabriel gestured with one hand waving up and down while nodding to Yuri while she was still looking down. He looked at Sayori to see if she could get what he meant. _Tone it down. You're making her uncomfortable._

After a moment it clicked and Sayori almost said something in exclamation before covering her mouth to stop herself. "S-sorry, Yuri." Sayori said with a small laugh, scratching the back of her head. "I j-just mean to say... Um..."

"I don't bite." Gabriel clarified. "And I certainly don't mind being your friend. You should relax a little."

Yuri seemed to ease up a little, actually having a small blush on her face.

"I... I-um..." Yuri paused, going into her bag to grab something. "I-I have something for you."

"Really?"

"Y-yes." Yuri turned to one of the desks that her bag leaned on and reached into it, zipper already undone. "I, um... I didn't want you to feel left out, so I... picked up a book you could enjoy. It's a short read, and it should keep your attention even if you're not much of a reader." Yuri presented the book to Gabriel, holding it out at arm's length to him. "And we could, you know... Discuss it... If you wanted..."

Yuri looked nervous again, regret already appearing of her face. Gabriel assumed that she felt was already reprimanding herself in her head. _Poor thing. I guess this did take a lot of nerve for her to do. Even with the little information I gave her._

"This is _very_ nice of you, Yuri!" Gabriel said appreciatively. "I'm surprised you went out of your way for me like this! I'll be sure to read it." He stuck the book in his bag.

Yuri looked physically relieved. "I-it wasn't really out of my way, don't worry! But please do read it at your own pace. I look forward to hearing what you think."

Gabriel thanked her again anyway. After a few words passing back and forth they eventually went about their own business. Sayori went in the corner of the room with a notepad in front of her, looking at with a hard gaze and her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth, tapping her pen against the paper.

Yuri had dove into her book the moment she could, looking intently at its contents with deep interest. Gabriel could imagine her sweating in concentration.

Natsuki went to the closet of the room and opened it. She paused for a moment looking inside and her arms fell to her sides. He was the closest to her at that moment and he could hear her complain about something involving order, probably about her manga being moved. She then went in with a huff of annoyance.

Everybody seemed to be going about their own business so he took the chance to go to the restroom with his bag.

...

Gabriel didn't need to worry about being interrupted in the boy's restroom. Their side of the building was basically barren after school hours, or at the very least the floor they're on. In light of this Gabriel looked over his notes with his stall door open, not actually having to use the toilet but used it as a seat. He crossed his legs while looking over his notes of the day events. He had the three-ringed spiral binder laid open on his lap. On the left side of the page were the notes taken the night before in anticipation of today while the right side remained blank so he may write up comparisons.

Left side note 1: _Members of the club will be excited that Tardis made decision to come back. Natsuki will display aggression towards Tardis as a warning tactic to be respectful only to be deflated from a comment by Monika about her manga collection._

Right side note 1: _Everything proceeded accordingly, alteration being Sayori was the one to defuse the situation._

Left side note 2: _Yuri will comment of the friendship of Tardis and Sayori only for Sayori to make an awkward situation for both Tardis and Yuri. Sayori will proceed to press Yuri about a gift she intended to give to Tardis forcing her into a situation to give him said book. Yuri becomes self-conscious about the whole thing until Tardis assures her that he is thankful for the gift._

Right side note 2: _Yuri comments on friendship, awkward moment occurs. Tried to minimize the situation to ease everyone, seems to have worked well. Yuri instead brought up the book instead of the pressure by Sayori. Thanked her for the gift._

Gabriel put the binder inside his bag and brought out the book Yuri had given him. _Portrait of Markov_. And as the game had described it before the cover had a mysterious eye. To him it looked as if it was genuinely staring back at him, almost with menace and judgment. Whoever made the cover for it certainly had talent.

Gabriel examined the cover of the book for an author title. It only had the book title and the eye, nothing even on the back. He opened the cover. It only held the books title. There was no summery. Not that he needed it, he was well aware of what it contained, and very well aware of the new game Dan Salvato had planned out that was actually based around the book. He also remembered that the four girls were involved in the game, but he doubted any of the three in the club would have so much as an _inkling_ towards it.

Gabriel shrugged to himself and flipped the book open about midway.

 _The needle had trouble going through the meat with all the subjects screaming and yelling. They all reacted the same; screaming for them to stop, begging for mercy, asking for salvation from a god. A_ false _god, which only angered the one who was operating the patient._

 _"Stop squirming, wretched_ BITCH _!" He said through gritted teeth and struggle. He shoved the screamer against the table with a hard shove and pulled on the restraints tighter, especially the one around their neck. They cough and sputtered against the harsh fabric that enclosed around their throat, their movements minimized, but their struggle harder than ever. It was almost like an electric dancing, he had to admit. Almost graceful._

 _This didn't make his rage lessen any. "Damn them and those cheap straps! If they want me to do my work for the Great One, then perhaps they could give me better equipment!"_

 _He grabbed the one on the table by their face and brought their eyes into contact. "STOP! SQUIRMING!" He nearly shrieked, then slammed the front of their head against the ball of his hand making a fast but hard thud into the table._

 _He shook his head in contempt and grabbed the limb that had fallen out of his grasp in their last struggle. He slammed the end of the new arm into their side, a foot lower from their original arm. They screamed at the feeling of cold, long dead flesh into their open wound, turning and grinding against their living tissue. There was a layer of decaying slime-_

Gabriel slammed the book shut, his eyes wide in surprise and shock.

"Holy _fuck_ , Yuri!" That was certainly a _thing_ he had just processed. He opened it to the beginning and looked over the first page. It was an introduction to the stories protagonist, a high school girl, her meeting with a long-lost sister, nothing different from what Yuri had told Tardis before in game, but actually reading the story added a bit more depth to the statement, an oddity that Gabriel still had trouble wrapping his head around; The realism of it all.

He put the book back in the bag for now. He debated on whether or not he would actually take the time to read it, given the later contents of it. He didn't want to make any trouble by hurting her feelings, but he certainly wasn't too comfortable with the idea of getting to _that_ part of the story. He figured he'd deal with it when he got there.

Until then he still has to go through with day 2. He thought back to his third note about it.

Left side not 3: _Only aware of the Sayori route until proceeding events. Sayori will come forward and have a brief discussion about each other (In which Tardis was rather harsh and Sayori was rather flirty with some blatant suggestions, though her questioning of me may change that outcome)._

Gabriel also recalled that she could be a bit mad at him since he had left her behind that morning, but recalling the on-and-off texts she had with Tardis she had probably already forgiven him.

He felt a bit more guilt about it than he was comfortable admitting.

 _After Sayori route it will then cut to a fight with Natsuki and Yuri. Monika had tried to stop things before they got out of hand, Sayori "Doesn't like fighting!", left with decision to pick a side. Leaving it to Sayori helps diffuse the situation where everyone's happy._

Monika may not have been there but he doubted that would change anything, as long as he leaves Sayori to take care of it. After that the day should end just fine without hurt feelings or any incident.

He zipped up his bag and left the restroom.

...

Outside the restroom door, which had a water fountain between it and the girl's restroom, he saw Yuri there filling up her tea pitcher with water. The door suddenly opening surprised her and elicited a yelp from her which Gabriel had responded with his own. The pitcher fumbled in her grip and nearly slipped out of her grasp. She clutched her heart with one hand and looked at Gabriel with a startled expression before realizing it was only him. Then her face became beet red.

"I-I'm sorry!" She sputtered. "I-I-I was only t-trying to g-get some water! I d-didn't mean-!"

"Yuri!" Gabriel interrupted. "Easy! You're fine, okay? I'm the one who startled you, I should be the one apologizing. I'm sorry."

"Please, don't! You d-didn't mean to, b-but I-..." Yuri trailed off.

"Wait," Gabriel interrupted. "How about this; we apologize to each other, and we accept each other's apology? That way we can assure one another that there are no hard feelings. I'm sorry."

Yuri stammered in an attempt to quickly assert that she was the one who had to apologize but had fumbled on her own words. Gabriel smiled gently and assuring. Yuri paused and swallowed. "I-I accept your apology. And I'm sorry."

"And I accept your apology as well."

Yuri looked relieved. Gabriel pointed to her pitcher. "Getting ready for some hardcore reading, huh?"

"Y-yes," Yuri said as she went back to filling up the pitcher. "Though, 'hardcore' is a bit of a strong word, Tardis."

"I didn't mean that _too_ literally," Gabriel said in good humor. "but I would say that you have a rather... _mysterious_ read here for sure." Gabriel thumped the Portrait of Markov against his thigh.

"Oh!" Yuri said excitedly after filling the pitcher. "You've begun to read it?"

"Some." Gabriel agreed. "I read the first few pages, mostly out of curiosity. I noticed the book doesn't have a summary. Or an author name."

"Ah, I see." Yuri said with an excited giggle as she walked down the hall back to the classroom, Gabriel following suit. Yuri seemed to not notice that she had taken the lead, but Gabriel didn't make it a point to comment on it. It was better to see the small smile of actual joy on her face rather than the timid and shy one. "I guess it would be what you call an 'Underground' kind of novel. I guess you could say it was an artistic decision of how they presented it, not having either of those identifications, but I can understand if it can be a tad off putting."

"Not really. I can actually appreciate the _mysterious writer_ motif. I guess I just prefer to know what I'm working with."

"I can explain what the book is about if you like."

"I got the gist of it from the first few pages. You already read some of it?"

"Yes, but the store keeper had explained its contents to me beforehand. I can appreciate the mystery as well, but I just had to know. I guess I just found the cover appealing and went on from there."

"Ah. Have some friends in the know at the bookstore, do you?"

"N-no... actually..." Yuri muttered quietly, still trying to maintain her smile.

There was an awkward pause between them.

"Well," Gabriel said as they finally neared the door. "you're too cool for them anyway, so I wouldn't worry about it."

Yuri blushed at the statement. Gabriel wondered if maybe he should have toned it down a little for her sake.

She cleared her throat. "W-would you like a cup of tea when it's done?"

"Absolutely." Gabriel said with a smile. "I'll just be checking in with the others."

Yuri excused herself and went to the electric kettle and fiddling with the herbs. Gabriel left Yuri to her own devices and looked around the classroom. Sayori was in the corner still writing ideas in her notepad. He could see from his angle that the page was full of words, some words scribbled out rather than erased. He figured if Monika were around it would have been President and Vice President discussing festival related things, but with no Monika in the present world Sayori was left to her own devices. Then again, since Yuri was Vice President she should have been talking with Sayori about the preparations. Gabriel thought this over and then realized that Yuri probably wouldn't be able to handle the pressure of responsibility over the idea. Sayori just wants everyone to be happy so she wouldn't put Yuri in a situation that would make her _that_ uncomfortable.

He figured it would have been a good as time as any to talk to her, see if he can get a read on her.

He was stopped when a light hit his eyes. He let out a silent gawk and took a step back, rubbing his eyes. The annoying purple light would be a part of his vision for a good ten minutes, much to his annoyance. He moved his hand in the air in front of him to catch the light. A ray went onto his palm and he looked toward its source. In front of the closet Natsuki was still in on the floor was reflecting the light. He walked over to it.

On the ground two or three feet away from the open closet door, when the light stopped shining on it, Gabriel saw it was a manga. Logically it had to have been Natsuki's _Parfait Girl's_. He looked over the cover.

 _"It features four girls in colorful attire striking animated feminine poses. It's...exceedingly 'moe'."_ MC's text box had said, and it certainly fit the bill. The art work was identical to the artwork of _Doki Doki Literature Club_ 's in-game. Also the girls on the cover had pretty similar appearances to that of the girls of the club as well, though sizes were different to meet with the "Moe" category. In the bottom corner of the cover was a _1_.

"Gah!.." He heard Natsuki grunt with an exasperated sigh. "Where is it!?"

Gabriel looked to the closet to see Natsuki standing on her tip-toes fingering through manga on the shelf looking for something in rushed. Gabriel looked to the manga in his hand. He walked to the closet just as Natsuki was actually looking to be on the verge of panic.

" _Where_ is _it?_ " She said through clenched teeth.

 _Jesus, these things must mean a lot to her..._ "Um, hey." Gabriel greeted as he walked up behind her. "I think you dropped something?"

Natsuki whirled around and looked almost surprised. She looked up at Gabriel almost warily before her eyes fell on the manga in his hand. Her eyes lit up and she shed any caution she had to snatch it out of his hands.

" _There_ it is!" Natsuki nearly exclaims. She looked relieved to have it back in her possession.

"It was on the ground over there." Gabriel said as he turned around to point at the spot. "Must have fallen off the shelf and skidded on down."

"I was going crazy looking for it!" Natsuki said. "I thought maybe Sayori didn't put it back in the right spot..."

Gabriel looked up behind her to the box that had her collection on the shelf. There had to have been more than twenty of them, maybe thirty. Marvin had pondered over what Parfait Girls could contain in story. He spent a good hour spit-balling concepts to Gabriel with the _very little_ information provided about it to begin, and followed with _too much_ detail on Marvin's end. The point of Parfait Girls was to reference the girls of the club so he felt Marvin was looking too much into almost nothing. Not that Gabriel had provided much to that conversation anyway.

"You read manga, right?" Natsuki asked Gabriel, seeing him eyeing up her collection.

"What gave it away? My baggy eyes, the pale complexion, or sad body?"

Natsuki blinked. She didn't know how to respond to that. She shook her head and continued; "I mean, you brought it up yesterday, remember?"

 _Yes._ "I guess I did. That series must mean a lot to you, huh?"

"Yup!" Natsuki said proudly. "It's my favorite manga!"

" _Parfait Girls._ Looks like _magical girl_ stuff."

"If you're going to judge, you can do it through the glass on that door." Natsuki said, pointing to the classroom door.

"Hey now, I wasn't judging." Gabriel said gently. "I think the title is an interesting choice. I'm assuming it's double entendre, right?"

Natsuki now looked confused. "What?"

"Parfait Girls. That's the group name, I get that, but I'm guessing it plays on the actual definition of the term too?" Natsuki only frowned and her brows furrowed. Gabriel explained. "A girl with _layers_ of complexity?"

"O-Oh!" Natsuki eyes lit with understanding. She crossed her arms and puffed her chest out. "Yeah, of _course_ I knew that!"

 _The_ fuck _you did..._

Natsuki continued. "I mean; a lot of the beginning is about simple things..." She explained, happy to be talking about the manga. "Like there's a really funny chapter where they're obsessed with a guy at the ice cream shop, but that just helps you get to know the characters! It's very entertaining! But later on, there's all kind of drama. Like when they get into all their backstories, and when some of the romance happens..." Natsuki was smiling at this point. "That's what really makes it so good. There are so many touching parts."

Now it was Gabriel's turn to be surprised. _Was she this passionate about Parfait Girls on her route?_ _I only got the cliff notes from Marvin..._ "I'm that too interested when it comes to this stuff, especially romance, but you make it sound interesting."

Natsuki giggled prideful. "Well, consider this a lesson straight from the Literature Club: Don't judge a book by its cover!

"In fact-" Natsuki shoved the book in Gabriel's hands. "I'm going to show you exactly why! -"

"Excuse me?" A voice said behind them. "I have your tea, Tardis."

Natsuki tilted her body to look past Gabriel while Gabriel looked over his shoulder. Yuri stood there with a cup of tea in each hand, steam rising from the hot beverage. Yuri looked to Gabriel with a curious expression, Gabriel assumed she was wondering why he was in the closet, then she saw Natsuki. Gabriel couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw Yuri's brows drop a tad. She looked back to Gabriel and smiled as she handed him one of the cups. "Here you go. I'm sorry for the wait."

"Don't be." Gabriel took his cup with an appreciative nod. "Thank you."

Gabriel brought the cup to his lips to blow the steam off the top to cool it down enough to drink when Yuri spotted the manga in his other hand. A small smile appeared on her lips, though even though it did seem to be genuine Gabriel couldn't help but feel that it didn't _quite_ reach her eyes.

"Manga." Yuri simply stated.

"Yeah," Natsuki crossed her arms. "What about it? Is there a problem to have it?"

"No, no," Yuri shook her head with the smile on her face. Her not-quite smile vanished for an almost nervous one. "It's just that I was hoping to ask Tardis if he would like to read with me today, perhaps talk about the book I had given him in better detail."

"Oh, yeah?" Natsuki said with some edge. "Well, I was going to ask him the same thing. He said he likes manga too, so I was going to show him mine."

The scene was playing out like that of a feud between two anime girls ( _Go figure_ ), and though it did seem like the light-hearted banter one would expect the edge of tension was still there. The fight was inevitable between the two after sharing poems. Gabriel just had to avoid picking a side until then to prevent any complications.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to take a rain check on both accounts." Gabriel interjected apologetically. "I was actually planning on checking in on Sayori." Gabriel eyed Sayori and a good reasoning came to him. "She's had her nose in that notebook all day. Seems she's making herself quite busy with preparations with the festival."

Natsuki and Yuri were brought out of their almost quarrel and they turned to Sayori, Natsuki having to bring her head out of the closet. They saw what Gabriel had saw earlier: Sayori's intense focus.

"So she is." Yuri said with mild admiration. "I honestly had not notice because she had been so quiet."

"It's kind of weird, though." Natsuki said. "I'm used to seeing her being all bubbly and care-free. Not all..." Natsuki trailed off.

"Fixated?" Yuri supplied.

"Yeah, that."

"She'll surprise you." Gabriel said. A thought came to Gabriel. He pitched his voice a bit lower. "Yuri, you said she says nice things about me, right?"

"Yes."

"Has she ever said anything specific?"

"Eh..." Yuri was hesitant to answer, a small blush across her face.

 _Well, that's an interesting response. Better not press too hard._ "You don't have to tell me if you're not comfortable. I was just curious is all."

Yuri paused and looked at the ground. "I-I'm sorry, Tardis, but I think it would be inappropriate to recite since it was between Sayori and I. I don't think it would be my place to discuss what Sayori has said in private."

 _Well, damn._ Gabriel smiled. "That's alright. Thanks anyway, Yuri."

"But I can assure you it is all positive things." Yuri said quickly. "I-I'm going to go read my book then. I'm sure Sayori would appreciate any help you give her. Excuse me." Yuri said as she turned to go.

"I'll read a few chapters of Markov tonight." Gabriel said to her as she took a step away, stopping when she heard him. "We can talk about it tomorrow here at the club if you'd like."

Yuri paused where she was for a moment, almost still. She then turned around and had a genuine big smile on her face. "I'd like that very much."

Gabriel held his smile and nodded to her. She went off to take her seat, her steps seemingly holding a more upbeat pace.

Gabriel looked back to Natsuki. She had become a bit more reserved after seeing the exchange between him and Yuri, far more quiet than she was moments before.

"You okay, there?" Gabriel asked her, though he already knew what was wrong.

"I'm fine." Natsuki said with her arms crossed.

Gabriel thought over what to say carefully with her. "I'm also interested in checking this out too. The big game you talked about it makes me want to see it for myself."

Natsuki was silent for a moment, but the words sunk in and she slowly came out of her funk. She smirked and put her hands on her hips. "I bet it'll knock your socks off."

Gabriel doubted that, but he kept that to himself. He held the manga out to Natsuki. "Tomorrow, then? I'll be sure to give it a look. You know, before or after I keep my word with Yuri." He hoped that sounded even enough in context to imply he wasn't picking one over the other.

"..." Natsuki looked at the volume in thought. "Just take it home with you."

Gabriel was legitimately surprised by this. "Are you sure?"

"Well, of course." Natsuki was now blushing. "It would take forever to finish if you didn't take it home. Just finish that one before tomorrow and I can lend you the next one." Her demeanor turned on the offense. She pointed a finger toward Gabriel. "And if it gets bent, I'll kill you."

Gabriel nodded. "By tomorrow, then."

This was something unexpected. He knew that she does give the main character the manga, he got that from Marvin, but with him already talking to Yuri about _her_ book he didn't expect for Natsuki to lend him the manga given that it was made clear Yuri had given him _Portrait of Markov_. He guessed that he was in both of their favor enough to get them regardless. Marvin would have killed him had he known he'd gotten his hands on a bonafide copy of _Parfait Girls, Vol. 1_. Though now that it was currently in his grasp for overnight, he was _very_ curious.

"Thanks, Natsuki."

Natsuki looked at the shelf and picked one of the copies mid-way, either catching up or re-reading the volume. "Don't read too into it."

Natsuki then scurried around him to get to her chosen seat. He'd take that over; _I-I-It's not like I like you or anything!_

"Baka." He muttered to himself with a quiet huff of laughter. He took a sip of tea only to have burnt his tongue and he swore under his breath. He closed the closet doors and went to check in on Sayori.


	5. Chapter 5

Gabriel took a second to look at his hands being full and stopped mid-step toward Sayori. He drank the tea (One scalding sip at a time) and walked over to Yuri's tea set-up and placed his cup next to it, then he put _Parfait Girls_ in his bag next to _Portrait of Markov_ for later reading. Yuri and Natsuki were too absorbed into their own reading activities to pay him any mind. After that he went to Sayori.

Gabriel walked up and stood in front of the desk. Sayori didn't even seem to be aware of his presence as she was staring hard at the paper, tapping her pencil against the desk. The tip of her tongue was just barely poking out the corner of her mouth.

 _That thing's going to dry out if she keeps doing that..._

"If stare's could start fire's that desk could be used to roast marshmallows." Gabriel said.  
Sayori snapped out of her trance and blinked her eyes into focus, her tongue going back in her mouth. She looked up and saw him. He gave a small wave. "You doing okay there?"

Sayori smiled and she immediately went for...

 _Bubbliness? Or is it bubblyness? Is that even a wo-?_

"Yup!" Sayori said cheerfully. "Just working on stuff for the festival."

"I can see that." Gabriel said as he looked over the notepad again. He saw that the page was filled out earlier from afar, but what he didn't see was what was on the paper. He couldn't make out any exact sentences from being upside down, and her writing was small, compact, and all over the place. He even saw that there were a few pages already used in that notepad flipped over on the spiral rings. They weren't properly folded so two pages were scrunched and folded in on themselves, but the same small and scattered handwriting were on them as well. Sayori was working harder than he thought. "Making progress?"

"Hmmm..." Sayori stopped thumping the pencil. "Well, I've had a few things that sound pretty good to me, but I just can't make a decision..." Sayori looked flustered. She leaned on her desk with her arms outstretched on both sides, practically hugging the desk. She groaned. "I just don't know what to pick!"

Since Sayori was currently taking Monika's role of making the final decision, Gabriel assumed he would have to play Sayori in this case as adviser.

"Well... what do you think is the most promising one?"

Sayori sat back straight and eyed her paper with a hum. She fingered through the words until it landed on what she was looking for. "Well, the problem is trying to find a way to draw people in! Even if we make it the most fun thing ever, no one will come if it's a literature event! So it's most important to figure out how to get people to show up in the first place, y'know? And after they come, we can do the thing to speak to their creative minds."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Well..." She tapped the one line she had been staring at. "... Maybe we can play some music?"

 _... That ...actually wouldn't be that bad of an idea. But it'd probably be better to stay on track._ "I mean, you _could_ , but music seems a bit too dependent on taste. Like a more atmospheric thing, but that can be taken care of in a different way."

"Mmmmmmm..." Sayori hummed. "Well, what could we do to make it a more awesome thing?"  
"Well," Gabriel paused, pretending to think it over. "I mean, _everyone_ likes food, right?"

Sayori immediately perked her head up and her eyes shining. "W-What kind!?"

"There's so many options to-" Gabriel began.

"Cupcakes!" Sayori decided with a joyous smile.

Gabriel fought back a snort. "There's an idea. I don't think Natsuki would mind making them for the festival." _I hope._

"Ah! You're right!" Gabriel could have sworn there was a drop of drool in the corner of her mouth. "Natsuki makes the best cupcakes. That works out perfectly~"

"I thought that would have been why you'd have picked them out in the first place."

"Cupcakes speak to my creative tummy~"

Gabriel smirked. "Looks like you've come to a decision, _Club President_."

Sayori now found herself in a downer. "I'm hungry..."

"One sec." Gabriel got up and went to his bag to grab one of his jerky sticks and brought it back to Sayori. "Want it?"

Sayori's eyes somehow got brighter and she grabbed the jerky from his hand. She opened it quickly and took two big bites out of the meat stick. "It's kind of greasy, but it's good!" She said over a mouthful.

"It gets the job done." Gabriel couldn't help but find himself smiling. He couldn't understand how Tardis could actively avoid someone like Sayori. Despite how much he would say in the game how much he appreciated and admired her, he would have just as soon turned to criticize her for almost trivial things, even though the main character himself admitted that he found almost no motivation to do anything. Gabriel guessed he could understand how the main character and Sayori would bounce off one-another for support since they were childhood friends, but-

 _"But", what?_ Gabriel chastised himself. _Stop letting the trivial shit get to you, you have other priorities. Don't be stupid about this. This is all just temporary so you can't make it your business. Ride it out smart until then._

After Gabriel snapped out of his funk he noticed that Sayori was oddly quiet. His eyes went back to her and he saw that she was watching him silently, curiously. "Something on my face?"

"Oh!" Sayori chirped. She swallowed with a giggle before continuing. "No! It's just that..."

 _Alright, here we go..._ "Just what?"

"Well... You just don't seem like... _you_ lately."

Gabriel fought from making any movement to her statement. _So she_ is _aware..._ "What do you mean?"

Sayori shook her head. "I'm not really sure how to put it into words. But I am worried about you. You're still getting good sleep and stuff, right? You did just get over a cold..."

 _They've been friends since childhood._ Gabriel thought. _I can make a decent guess on the way Tardis talks, but that's about it. This may be a bit harder than I thought. I have to divert attention away from the topic..._ "I-I'm fine, Sayori." Gabriel stuttered. He internally winced at himself. _Remember your notes._ "What about you? Are _you_ sleeping well? Last I checked you were _still_ oversleeping."

Sayori was caught off guard. "Eh?" She smiled nervously. "N-Not every day..."

 _Going good. Double down._ "How often do you get up on time?"

"That's..." Sayori gulped. "...It's a secret!"

"I see. Maybe you should be worrying more about yourself than me."

"C'monnnn!" Sayori fidgeted in her seat, pressing her fingers together. "At least give me the benefit of the doubt..."

 _May as well go full routine. Safe measure._ "I don't think I can. There's a few more giveaways that you're not taking care of yourself very well."

"Eh?" Sayori leans back on her seat and glances around at herself. "What giveaways?"

"Well, your hair is sticking out on one end." Gabriel reached his hand to run his fingers tip down her hair to straighten it out, an action he remembered Tardis doing. Sayori squeaked at the contact, a sound that sent an unpleasant shiver down his spine. He hated to do that. "It really needs to be brushed."

"My hair is just really hard to get right..." She defended.

"Well, there's more than just your hair, Sayori." He pointed to her bow. He was about to say something about it, but it really did look better on the side of her hair anyway. He decided to avoid that topic and instead pointed to the collar of her shirt. "There's toothpaste on the collar of your shirt." He again reached for her and grabbed the collar of her shirt, rubbing his thumb on the stain in an attempt to wipe it out.

"B-But nobody would ever notice that..."

"Maybe. But they could just as well not be saying anything because they'd rather not make you feel embarrassed."

"Hey, you meanie..."

Gabriel reached out to do the blazar part of the route next that had led to the button-up picture of Sayori. He looked to her face while he was reaching for her. From the corner of his vision earlier he could see that she was easily frazzled by all of Gabriel's nitpickings, acting almost playfully defensive in response.

In the moment he looked at her face all he saw was sadness. He saw a fragile girl who was just resigned to having the next criticism to happen. To just get it over with.

The music, _Sayo-nara_ if he recalled correctly, droned in his head seeing that expression. Then the memory of what followed after opening the door at the end of the 1st act was met with.

Gabriel felt cold. He saw that his hand was still outstretched for her blazer. His hand flinched back into a fist away from her, one of his knuckles cracking in the process. In the corner of his vision he saw Sayori look up at him. He made eye contact with her.

Whatever saddened look she had was gone. She looked timidly concerned for Gabriel. Tardis.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Sayori asked in a lower pitch. Gabriel assumed it was so that way Natsuki or Yuri couldn't hear them. "You-"

"I'm fine!" Gabriel said quickly. He swallowed hard and chided himself for losing his cool. He put on a smile. "I'm... Fine. Look, I'm sorry, just..." He looked down. "Just try to take care of yourself more, okay?"

Sayori was caught off guard by this reaction, looking more surprised than she had earlier. _Goddamn it. I might've messed up..._

She smiled and giggled. "I have _you_ for that, silly! Helping each other out is what best friends do!"

"You're right." Gabriel smiled and nodded to her. He wasn't sure if he should look her in the eye for emphasis or if she would just see through it. He felt he had put himself in a corner.

There was barely a pause before Sayori called out: "It's about time to share poems everybody!" She leaned in with a playful smile. "Tardis, I can't wait to read yours!"

Gabriel heard nervous sounds from the two of them. He honestly couldn't feel more relieved to be out of the awkward situation. _I have to be more careful, damn it..._

...

As everyone was gathering their poems from their own bags Gabriel walked to retrieve his. Sayori seemed to be excited (If her bouncing up and down on her heels was any indicator), Yuri and Natsuki clearly reluctant about going through with the reading. Gabriel tried to keep the poem as neutral as possible to show no favoritism to one girl, but after the little discussion he had with Sayori he was worried to have any interaction with her. He pulled out his poem. _**Looking in.**_ Gabriel looked over it again. He cringed at it and quickly erased the _Meow_.

He figured he'd go through Sayori last, get as much time as he can between the conversation from earlier. Gabriel quickly looked around for either of the two other girls to show first.

Yuri was the closest. She saw him walking up to her and she smiled her shy smile. They exchanged a brief greeting before Gabriel handed his poem to Yuri. She took it and began to read, staring at the poem with concentration.

A thoughtful frown appeared on her face. Her brows furrowed and her eyes darted up to Gabriel for a brief moment before returning to the poem. Her eyes went back to the top of the poem to re-read it.

A moment of silence passes between them. After Gabriel counted to twenty he spoke up. "Hope this isn't a bad sign." Gabriel joked.

"Oh!" Yuri snapped out of her train of thought. "N-not at all! It's just I... " Yuri trailed off.

"Yuri, it's fine. If you didn't like it there's no hard feelings."

"No!" Yuri said quickly. "It's not like that! I _did_ like it's just that I didn't... _expect_ something like _this_ from you." After Yuri got the words out she got immediately flustered. "I don't mean that in a bad way!"

"I didn't think you did." Gabriel assured. "Take a minute. I can wait for what you have to say."

Yuri paused and took a breather. After she had gathered herself she tried again, this time far more composed. "Have you ever written poetry before, Tardis?"

"This is my first time, actually." This was true for Tardis sake, but it was also very true for Gabriel.

She looked at the poem then back to Gabriel. She traced her fingers along the words of the poem, as if breaking it down more thoroughly. Still, though, it was as if she was trying to be sure of something before she spoke. Gabriel thought she was going to ask something else, but she instead gave him the same suggestions she would have given in the game before, after whatever event took place. Gabriel nodded and smiled appreciatively as she said them.

"... It might take you some time," Yuri was saying with a smile on her face. "But it all comes with practice, and learning by example, and trying new things. I also hope that everyone else in the club gives you valuable feedback." Yuri frowned to herself. "Natsuki can be a little bit biased, though..."

"To what regard?"

"U-Um... well..." Yuri delved back into her nervous self. "Never mind...I shouldn't be talking about people like that... sorry..."

 _I already have an idea of what to expect._ "That's fine. May I read your poem now?"

"Please do!" Yuri smiled dreamily. "I'd love to share my thought process behind it..."

Gabriel took the poem from Yuri and read _Ghost Under the Light_. He didn't really get the symbolism behind it before when he first read, but he could say the same about most of the other poems throughout the game (Natsuki's were the easiest to understand, obviously). He only learned after playing it that the poems actually meant something deeper for each character, but he never really had the attention to go back and read them since he already had his fill of jump scares and such. Re-reading it now, especially knowing a bit more of Yuri's background, he could tell what the poem was conveying.

Gabriel finished reading it and looked up at Yuri. She was anxious and fidgeting, feeling self-conscious for how long Gabriel spent reading.

"I... I'm sorry I have such terrible handwriting!" Yuri said nervously.

"That's not the case at all! I actually like your handwriting."

"But it took you a long time to read..."

"Just trying to wrap my head around it is all. Your handwriting is very pretty, Yuri."

"Eh?" Yuri blushed lightly. "That's... a relief..."

The expected back-and-forth between them continued as normal. Gabriel even asked Tardis' line if Yuri was into ghosts and Yuri smiled happily and proudly to explain the poem to him in detail, and Gabriel listened as she freely chose her words rather than carefully picking them, with no sputter at all.

"... Lingering in her last remaining place of comfort, unable to let go of the past." Yuri was saying. "And soon to be left with nothing..."

"You really know your stuff when it comes to poetry." Gabriel said. "I'm impressed, Yuri."

"It's nothing, really..." Yuri modestly said to the praise. "Well... it makes me happy that you think that. Just remember that it won't be too long before you pick up on these things, too."

"Maybe." Gabriel said with a laugh. "I certainly don't expect to come out as Shakespeare, but I'll be sure to keep doing my best."

"I'm glad." Yuri looked delighted to hear that. "May I inquire something of you?"

Gabriel nodded. "Sure."

"Your poem..." Her eyes fell on _Looking In_ in Gabriel's hand. "What was your thought process when you were writing it?"

Gabriel paused. His gaze went to his poem, thinking carefully. He finally looked up to Yuri with another smile. "In all honesty, I couldn't tell you. I just remember you saying yesterday about how the truest writing is writing to yourself, I put the pen to the paper, and came with this. I guess I have a harder time understanding myself."

Yuri frowned at this. She looked like she wanted to say something. She even opened her mouth once, but closed it a second later. She gave him a shy smile instead. "I see." Yuri finally said. It was hard for Gabriel to tell if Yuri had actually bought it. "So far this is actually exciting. I'll be waiting to read your next poem tomorrow."

"You as well."

By then Sayori and Natsuki were done exchanging their own poems so Gabriel had swooped in to share with the later. Not even three words were passed between them when Natsuki held out her hand expectedly to be given the poem. Gabriel obliged wordlessly and Natsuki still held her poem in one hand while she held his in the other, eyes traveling the paper.

After about a minute she finally responded with a grunt and a shrug. "It's okay, I guess." Natsuki handed the poem back to Gabriel. "Weird, though."

"Weird in a good way, or weird in a bad way?" He grabbed the poem.

"Weird in a weird way."

Gabriel shrugged. "I'll take that. Better than it being crap."

Natsuki smirked. "Here, read mine. I'll show you how it's done."

Gabriel took _Eagles Can Fly_ and read it over. It took maybe 15 seconds.

"Well?" Natsuki asked when she felt Gabriel was taking too long, arms crossed. "What do you think?"

"That animals can do more than humans." Natsuki rolled her eyes. Gabriel laughed. "Just a joke. In all seriousness, I thought it was good."

"R-really?" Natsuki said with childlike surprise. She caught it and cleared her throat and puffed out her chest. "Well, I'm just warming up! You better believe that the next one will knock your socks off!"

"I see that you're also about simplicity over... " He thought over it over. " _Sophisticated_ language."

Gabriel went through Natsuki's tangent about her preference for simpler poetry over... Well, basically Yuri's poems. Gabriel, like he did for Yuri, listened to what she had to say while supplying the lines Tardis would have given while changing them enough in tone to support the role he was playing.

"Like I set up for a rhyme at the end," Natsuki was saying. "but then I made it fall flat on purpose. It helps bring out the feeling in the last line."

"Ah." Gabriel said. "Clever."

"That's what it means to be a pro!" Natsuki placed her hands on her hips. "I'm glad you learned something. Didn't expect that from the youngest one here, did you?"

"Youngest by, like, what, a few months?" Gabriel said without thinking. "Doesn't seem that much of a difference." Natsuki looked absolutely surprised by Gabriel's response, much to his confusion. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was slightly agape. "What?"

"H-how..." Natsuki fumbled and tried again. "How old do you think I am?"

"Eighteen." _What's up with her?_

Natsuki stared at him for a moment longer, her eyes big. "No one's ever gotten that right before." She said. "How did you know?"

"The-" _Wiki!_ Gabriel caught himself. "-tone in your voice.

"My voice...?" Natsuki sounded unsure.

"It has a mature edge to it." Gabriel said as if it were the absolute truth. "I mean, yeah, you're... a bit on the little side, _but_ ," He put emphasis on the last word before Natsuki decided to deck him in what he could hope would be the stomach. "you talk like an adult. Anyone would notice that if they would pay attention."

"... Really?" Natsuki asked timidly.

 _I doubt it._ "Absolutely."

"... Yeah." Natsuki said in some kind of realization (Notable to Gabriel that she actually made her voice lower when she said this), and she nodded to herself, her swell of pride returning ten-fold. "Yeah! People just don't _hear_ how mature I am! If they could pull their head out of their asses, they'd see I'm not just a kid!"

 _Bail before you fuck this up._ "That's the spirit! Confidence!" He edged away from Natsuki who couldn't care less about him doing so. There was a skip in her step as she went to share her poem with Yuri while Gabriel went to share his poem with who he dreaded the most right now: Sayori.

Sayori met him half-way with a skip in her step and a smile on her face. If she was still thinking about any of the earlier awkwardness she wasn't showing it on her face. She simply exchanged greetings with each him in her cheery way, hopping on the heels of her feet in excitement as she held out her hand for his poem. Gabriel handed her the poem.

"...This is a good poem, Tardis." Sayori said after reading it. "Are you sure this is your first time?"

"Yup." _She's not commenting about earlier._

"Well, I like it! I'm very impressed!"

"Really?" _Seems like we're sticking to the original route._

"Well, to be honest..." Sayori said with a bashful smile. "I was afraid that you wouldn't do it seriously, or that you wouldn't write at all." Her cheery smile returns. "I'm really happy just that you wrote one. It just reminds me of how you're really apart of the club now~"

 _Either she's just choosing not to say anything or she didn't label it too out of the norm. I'll just have to roll with it for now._ "Well, of course. I'm not really into this stuff yet, but I'll keep my word and keep trying at it."

"See? It's like I say, Tardis: Deep down, you're not selfish at all, you know? Trying new things like this for other people..." Her smile became brighter. "That's something only really good people do!"

Gabriel met her smile. "Thanks, Sayori." _Except I'm only here because I honestly am not sure of what else to do. They seem like nice girls, and I can't help but kind of feel bad putting up this whole front, but I have a strong feeling that what's happening right now is related to the club, at least in some way. I'm starting to have doubts about it now, but it's only the second day._

 _... And in my second day I'm slipping up pretty bad._

"Yeah!" Sayori said. "And I'm gonna make sure you have lots of fun here, okay? That will be my way of thanking you~"

"Looking forward to it.

"Yay!" She cheered. "Now you'll read my poem too, right? Don't worry, I'm really bad at this. Ehehe..." Bashful once again.

"Let's see it." Gabriel was handed back his poem along with Sayori's. _Dear Sunshine._

"... So." Gabriel said after reading it. "What did you have for breakfast?"

"... Eggs and toast." She put her fingers tips together in a nervous gesture. "Ehehe... Is it that obvious?"

"That you wrote it this morning? A little bit."

"I forgot to write one last night." Sayori became defensive. "I still tried my best!"

"It's not bad, Sayori. I liked it. It's certainly... a Sayori poem."

"Really?"

"Really, really." Gabriel assured. "Just make sure that you remember to write a poem tonight. Preferably a good amount of time before you actually go to bed. Don't want to end up doing it last minute again, do you?"

"I don't have a problem with doing it before school..." Sayori once again became bashful.

"But don't you have trouble waking up on time, though?"

"I do, but... maybe you could... you know-"

A knock on the classroom doorframe. Everyone in the class room turned to look to the source to see a white haired, red-eyed student, who's only familiar to one of the Literature Club members.

"Yo." Tsubasa said with a lazy wave from standing in the doorway.

"Oh, hey dude." Gabriel greeted, surprised to see him there. And admittedly nervous. "What's up?"

Tsubasa's eyes scanned the room, stopping on each girl for no more than a second before landing back on Gabriel. The girls looked at him with varying feelings: Natsuki looked at him distrustfully, Yuri was already shying away and sunk into herself, and Sayori was confused. Sayori's eyes went back and forth between Gabriel and Tsubasa.

Tsubasa was blatantly aware of all the looks, but he chose to ignore them. He nodded to Gabriel. "...Tardis. 'Was hoping I could talk to you privately for a minute?"

"Um, yeah, sure." Gabriel handed the poem back to Sayori who was still confused. "I'll just be a minute, okay?"

"O... okay." Sayori looked to Tsubasa one more time. She then went back to her happy self and looked back to Gabriel. "Take your time, okay Tardis?"

Gabriel nodded and walked over to Tsubasa whom walked out into the hallway. Gabriel followed and they were a good distance from the door for privacy. After Tsubasa looked over Gabriel's shoulder he finally speaks to him in a hushed voice. "So. How's it going?"

"I'm stupid and I'm bad at this."

"Fantastic."

Gabriel ignored that. "I keep slipping up. I keep acting out of character, which is fine for the most part with the girls, but it's dangerous with Sayori. I have to avoid talking about books and literature here despite being a part of the Literature Club because I don't know if the stuff I know about even _exists_ here, and I may now be _too_ in the favor of Natsuki because I know her real age and had to make up some bullshit about some trait that was _obvious_." Gabriel ended this with air quotes.

Tsubasa's brows furrow. "Who's Natsuki?"

"The shortest one with the pink eyes and hair."

"Oh." Tsubasa tilted his head. Curiosity got the best of him. "How old _is_ she?"

"Eighteen."

"I absolutely do not believe you."

Gabriel waved his hand between them in a dismissive motion. "Not important. Look, I-"

"Hold on." Tsubasa cut him off. "I'm not here for a venting session. I just came to tell you that we can't do the after school talks for a while. My sister got pissed at me for being as late as I was and now she 'put down her foot' and I _have_ to be there before dinner."

Behind Gabriel the sound of an erupting argument was taking place.

"Maybe you're just jealous that Tardis appreciates my advice more than he appreciates yours!" Yuri was yelling.

"Huh! And how do you know he didn't appreciate _my_ advice more?" Natsuki retorted. "Are you that full of yourself?"

"I...! No... If I was full of myself..." Yuri's voice grew louder. "I would deliberately go out of my way to make everything I do overly cutesy!"

"Uuuuuu...!"

"U-um!" Sayori was now heard. "Is everyone okay?"

The argument was getting louder and was echoing further down the halls.

"They fighting?" Tsubasa asked.

"That happens." Gabriel said. "But what about the..."

Tsubasa handed Gabriel a folded piece of paper. "I'm not going to bail out on you yet. I just wanted to give you my phone number. For now, it'll be easier this way."

Gabriel took the paper and pocketed it. "Thanks. What would be a good time to call?"

"Any time after five, no later than nine. If I'm sent _anything_ about hentai, cats, or waifus, I'm blocking you."

"... That last one doesn't count toward the club members, right?"

"They're the exception." Tsubasa eyed behind him. "And they look pretty pissed."

Gabriel was going to ask what he meant but he had by then finally caught the sound of footsteps stomping toward them. Gabriel turned around to see a determined and angry Natsuki and a firm but almost fragile looking Yuri storming in his direction with Sayori tagging right behind them still trying her best to diffuse the situation.

"I-I don't like fighting, guys...!" Sayori was saying.

Gabriel did _not_ take into account that they would ignore any other factor just to push their personal agenda, like arguing in front of a stranger on top of confronting Tardis in _front_ of said stranger. Then again, both of them were pretty riled up when this happened the first time and brought Tardis into the fight despite being a member for only a day.

Gabriel was feeling less capable of anything every moment.

"Tardis!" Natsuki yelled. "Could you tell _Yuri_ that she should get over herself and learn to appreciate that _simple_ writing is more effective? This argument wouldn't be happening in the first place if she just would! What's the point in making your poems convoluted for no reason? The meaning should jump at the reader, not force them to figure it out. Help me explain that to her, Tardis!"

"W-Wait!" Yuri interjected. "There's a reason we have so many deep and expressive words in our language! It's the only way to convey complex feelings and meaning the most effectively. Avoiding them is not only unnecessarily limiting yourself... it's also a waste! You understand that, right, Tardis?"

Gabriel looked between them, looked to Sayori who was in-between either letting out tears of frustration or clearly having thoughts of intervening, and Tsubasa was... Indifferent.

"Uh..."

"Well?" Yuri and Natsuki said in unison.

Gabriel mentally shook himself. He had to remember to follow the route normally, and this was a part of it. He just had to follow the optimal choice.

"Sayori...!" Gabriel called.

Sayori perked up in attention. "Eh?!"

There was an audible gurgle among them. Sayori's color drained and she clutched her stomach and she began to bounce on her toes. "B-b-bathroom...!"

With that Sayori bolted past Gabriel and Tsubasa to the restrooms. Gabriel watched as his only out ran away and he was now left with the two girls who were still looking at him impatiently.

Gabriel gulped. "T-Tsubasa...?"

At that point Tsubasa casually turned around and walked down the hall without another word, leaving Gabriel to fend for himself. He has hoping Tsubasa would do _something_ , but even only knowing Tsubasa for a day that reaction should have been expected, and understandable. Sayori was having "Problems", Gabriel was more than sure it was because of the jerky he had given her. And now by the game standards, he was left to either side with Yuri or Natsuki.

"Come on, answer already!" Natsuki said impatiently with a glare.

Yuri said nothing, her expression defenseless.

Gabriel's hands turned to fists as his weary and nervousness was turning into anger to the point that he had closed his eyes. He could feel his teeth grinding.

 _Why?_ Gabriel thought. _The first day went well enough, now_ this _? I didn't even want to really change_ anything _! I just wanted to get through this without trouble, but whatever little thing I do seems to backfire. I don't want to be here, I don't want to pretend to be someone else, and I sure as shit don't want to deal with this! It ain't fucking fair. I didn't ask for any of this, and it's not my fault these two don't get along. And I..._

 _You know what?_ "No."

Both girls blinked at his answer.

Natsuki: "What!?"

Yuri: "P-pardon...?"

Gabriel opened his eyes. They both looked flabbergasted with their own level of frustration. Gabriel felt his body slacken and his hands relax and found he had lost any energy to be mad. He felt tired. Very tired. He just wanted to be somewhere else.

"I said, 'no'. I'm not doing this." He reiterated. "I'm getting my stuff and going home."

He went and walked around them to the classroom. Yuri and Natsuki were immediately on his tail.

"Wait, hold on! You can't just walk away like that!" Natsuki nearly growled. Yuri fumbled on her words to say something to the same effect, but ended up not saying anything and just merely following Natsuki's lead.

They reached the classroom and Gabriel was bee-lining to the desk with his bag. "Why not?"

"Because..." Natsuki paused to think of an answer. "... Because as a member of the Literature Club you have to give your input on a club related issue!"

"It's _not_ a club issue," Gabriel shouldered his bag. "It's a _personal conflict_."

"I-I agree with Nat-..." Yuri trailed off. Gabriel turned to face them to find Natsuki looking livider than ever and Yuri turned away and nervously playing with her long hair.

"I'll tell you what: If you really want my answer, you both have to answer mine first." Gabriel said. He didn't give them a chance to respond before he continued. "Does my opinion really matter because it's a 'Club issue'," He finger quoted. "or is it because you're sure that my answer will benefit your personal agendas and bias'?"

Yuri and Natsuki froze to that question. Natsuki's almost authorative demeanor faltered and her angry expression slowly melted. Yuri's face was completely hidden in her hair and although she slowed down on playing with it he could see a slight tremble in them.

Natsuki: "W-Well, I..."

Yuri: "..."

 _That answers that._ "So if my answer is what either of you hoped neither of you cared about what the other would have felt for it? Winning the argument mattered more, right?" Neither of them answered. "And even then, I thought literature was about self-expression, artistic creativity, and varied writing styles. I would think that a Literature Club would be more accepting of all that to broaden horizons. Not limit how the literature of the club _should_ be based on personal preference."

Silence. Natsuki completely deflated, arms loosely crossed and staring down at the ground with a frown. Yuri had stuck with the same position; however, she had become completely still.

"Trying to drag me into it was unfair to me, stressing out Sayori the way you did was unfair to her, but most importantly how you treated _each other_ was unfair _and_ uncalled for."

More silence, both clearly downcast.

 _Great. I'm sure this will bite me in the ass later._ Gabriel left without saying another word. The only sound to follow him on his way out was the sound of his own exiting footsteps.

...

Gabriel was constantly chiding himself on his way back to Tardis' house, fighting himself in his head on a million different things he could have done differently, and criticized himself about all the other mistakes he had made. He felt the beginning of another headache coming on, a throbbing ache already beating in his temples. He just wanted to take some time to clear his head if only for a little while. He remembered that there were headphones in the bag, and there surely had to be some music on Tardis' phone that he could drone out to.

He stopped and kneeled down to grab the phone and hunted for the headphones. He felt the phone vibrate in his hand. He had set it to vibrate just before going into school and hadn't checked it since that morning. He turned the screen on and winced.

3 missed calls and 5 unread texts from Sayori. She didn't leave any voice messages so he went straight for the texts.

Text 1: _Is everything okay?_

Text 2: _I came out of the bathroom and you're gone! Natsuki and Yuri are also really quiet._

Text 3: _I mean, Yuri is always quiet, but not THIS_ _quiet, and certainly not Natsuki! They're barely saying anything to me._

Text 4: _I ended club for the day. I thought it'd be best for them, but I'd still like to know what happened! Can you please tell me?_

Text 5, the one he had just received: _Please talk to me._

Gabriel sighed heavily and smacked the phone lightly against his forehead. He had not taken Sayori into consideration when he got out of there. He left her to dry with those two after the whole thing. _At least they didn't yell at her._

Though knowing Sayori seeing her friends sad was probably a lot worse for her.

" _Fuck_..." He smacked the phone hard once against his head again. He sighed through his nose.

He caught whiff of something that made his stomach grumble. He finally became more aware of his surroundings, seeing other than just the route back to the house. He saw he was next to a small restaurant of many within close proximity of each other, and though it was a part of the day were the rush was just starting to die and there were people coming in and out of all the food establishments the one that caught Gabriel's attention wasn't too active. It had a curtain covering the entrance and he could see the outline of one person sitting down eating and another person working behind the counter, the name was enough for Gabriel to know what he would expect from it.

 _El Rosa_. Mexican food.

After two days of mostly jerky and ramen, he couldn't think of any other way to lighten his day up a bit. His stomach growled again. He got up and texted Sayori as he walked to _El Rosa._

 _I'm sorry I didn't answer you, phone was in backpack on vibrate. I'm sorry I walked out on you with that, I guess I kind of lost my temper and went off on them. I'll be sure to apologize to them tomorrow at the club. I just think that for today that it would be better for everyone to clear their heads, including me._

He sent the text and moved the curtain out of the way. There were eight stools in total, and the entire interior was painted green and the ceiling was painted red to keep up with the theme of a rose. The counter was a polished wood which plates and bowls could glide easily across.

 _And the place smells_ awesome.

The cook was reading a book until Gabriel came in, an elderly gentleman. He was a thinning man who was perhaps anywhere between his fifties to sixties, liver spots and wrinkles splotched here and there on his face and arms. He set the book down and smiled at Gabriel. "Help, sir?" He asked in a deep and heavily accented Spanish voice.

" _Yes, very much so._ " Gabriel said in Spanish. " _I would like one of whatever has carnitas and cheese with extra carnitas and cheese, to go. I'm not too picky, so I'd be fine with dealer's choice._ " Gabriel thought it over. " _I don't mean to come off as rude, I'm just in a bit of a rush._ "

The man blinked in surprise. A big grin had spread across his face and he chuckled. " _Absolutely, sir. Coming right up._ " He tied his apron and went to work.

Gabriel took a seat and smiled back. " _Thank you._ "

He felt the phone vibrate in his hand and he saw it was another text message from Sayori. He opened it.

 _Oh, okay! I'm sorry about the way Natsuki and Yuri reacted! :( That's the first time they ever fought like that. It was really surprising! I know you probably just want to cool off after that, so I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay? ;);)_

Gabriel smiled at the message. He was happy at least Sayori was okay after all that.

" _Such a big smile!_ " The old man said with a laugh. " _Talking to your girlfriend, my friend?"_

" _Not exactly._ " Gabriel pocketed the phone. " _Can you add another of what you're making on top of that?_ "

...

Gabriel made another stop to a store to pick up some things for the kitten. He made it back to the home in decent time, but made one last stop to Sayori's house. Sayori was still behind him on her walk home so she wouldn't there for maybe another fifteen or twenty minutes. Gabriel walked through her gate to her door and put the food on the front step. With a pen he left a message for Sayori on the Styrofoam container that held a hot quesadilla.

 _I'll see you tomorrow._

 _-Tardis_

With that he quickly jogged back to his house. Upon entering he was greeted with the sound of rapid pattering his way.

" _Meow!_ " The kitten tried to halt right at his feet but ended up slipping on the floor and crashed his front paws into Gabriel's shoe, knocking him over both of Gabriel's feet in a clumsy backflip. The kitten recovered quickly and stood on top of his shoe, meowing continuously. Gabriel snorted and set the bags down and grabbed the furry little guy Gabriel held the kitten against his chest, to which the kitten purred and stared up at him.

"Well, hey there." Gabriel greeted. "How's your day going?"

" _Meow!_ "

"Yeah, mine, too." Gabriel paused. "... You pooped somewhere in the house, didn't you?"

" _Meow!"_

"Yeah, that was a stupid question. I'll have to hunt that down later."

" _Meow!"_

...

After Gabriel set the kitten up with a bowl of kitten food he had bought from the store (Which he had moistened up with a can of tuna), hunted down and found the cat turd, had taken a _long_ hot bath while trying to bathe a kitten, he finally retreated to the bedroom with a heavy sigh while the kitten enjoyed himself with the meal. He set the desk up for homework, placed _Portrait of Markov_ and _Parfait Girls Vol. 1_ next to the homework. Looking at them made him feel a twinge of guilt. He looked at the clock on his phone. A quarter after 5. Gabriel called the number Tsubasa had given him.

When Tsubasa answered Gabriel told him everything that happened in the classroom after he left, what he had said to the both of them, and also the little details that had transpired before, as well as restating his concerns.

After Gabriel's rant Tsubasa grunted. "I don't think you should concern yourself too much with those two. I saw the way they were acting. How you responded wasn't unjustified."

"Yeah, but..." Gabriel shook his head. "They have it pretty rough themselves, so I can understand it, I guess."

"Doesn't excuse their shitty behavior. If you want to apologize to them, by all means do so. Not my decision."

Gabriel thought it over, but he didn't dwell on it long. He knew he'd be the one to apologize, if only because the club may be related to what's happening to him. He needed to keep thing's on the route and he can't do that if he's on the majority of the member's shit-list. He told Tsubasa this. Tsubasa grunted ambiguously.

"As for the Sayori thing, just find something to help study yourself, get some background."

"The only thing I was really able to work with were texts."

"You're childhood friends. There's bound to be _something_ : Yearbooks, family albums, old videos. Find some context clues or something. If you- _Tardis_ didn't take any, his parents or Sayori's parents are bound to have made something back then."

Gabriel wrote it down as a to-do list for the early morning. "Got it."

"For being worried about what this place has and does not have compared to where you're from, the internet is a thing. Look up what you've read before and see if any of it is here. On top of that familiarize yourself with what _is_ popular here, have something under your belt to blend in better in the club."

Gabriel felt stupid about not even realizing that one. He didn't say this aloud. Instead he just made another note. "Maybe I can find some music and shows I know, too."

"It's possible. Just make sure you read the stuff they gave you, first. That would be a priority regardless of what happened today."

"I planned on it. I'm not the fastest book reader, but the manga will be quick work at least." Tsubasa grunted again. "So, that was my day. How was yours?"

"About as it usually is. Routinely boring. I don't do much outside of school, dude."

"What? Don't you have any friends to hang out with? You're in an anime/gaming club."

"... If you spent one day in my club you'd understand why I don't take that question seriously."

"Is this a 'I hate this school and everyone in it' kind of thing?"

"Not everyone. Just the majority."

Gabriel snorted. "Edgelord, much?"

"Bite me." Tsubasa replied in good humor. "I have to get my own stuff done, so we'll have to put this off until tomorrow."

"Alright. I'll call you tomorrow, let you know what I find, how things go. Later."

"Later." Tsubasa hung up.

Gabriel tossed the phone on the work desk and did the homework he was given. During this the kitten had jumped on Gabriel's shorts and made a climb all the way to the top of the desk. Gabriel winced a few times from the claws but he sucked it up and let the fur-ball climb the mountain. The kitten watched Gabriel do homework with his head tilted and his tail swinging left and right. Gabriel saw out the corner of his eye that the kitten was preparing to pounce and attack the pencil in his hand.

The kitten jumped and attempted to tackle the pencil, only for Gabriel to move his hand out of the way. The kitten skidded all the way to Gabriel's other hand and Gabriel immediately used that hand to play with the kitten while he kept using the other to do the homework.

Gabriel winced. _He has sharp teeth coming in._

Gabriel finished and set the homework in the bag for tomorrow. Out of the two books to read he figured that it'd be best to read more of the _Portrait of Markov_ since he was the most acquainted with it.

Reading the first few chapters was just build up for the story, establishing characters and the setting. He already knew what to expect later on in the book so what he read was a nice little reprieve from the weirder stuff, but the darker undertones were certainly there. And like the MC had stated in the game, the character did remind him a _little_ of Yuri. He made a bookmark out of a torn piece of paper and set the book aside.

He picked up _Parfait Girls_ and cracked open the first page. A few chapters in and he actually found himself having a good time. He wasn't too into Slice-of-Life stuff, and Magical Girls certainly wasn't his cup of tea, but the funny moments got him here and there. He got to the ice-cream-shop-guy part Natsuki had talked about.

...

 _Alice smiled widely as the cute boy from_ 9th Circle Ice Cream _had given her order of Neapolitan._

 _"Here you go, miss," He said with a polite smile. "Will there be anything else?"_

 _"N-no, I'm fine." Alice replied nervously. She fidgeted in her seat. "A-actually, now that I have the chance to r-..." Alice gulped. "_ Really _talk to you..."_

 _"Oh." He cleared his throat and leaned in closer to hear her. "What do you mean?"_

 _Alice blushed when the boy got closer in her face, as if ready to hear a secret._

Finally! Fufu~ _Alice's thought bubble read._ I _finally_ get to be alone with him! With Minori in the pit-trap I dug in her yard, Yuyu trapped at the zoo, and Ayami stuck in the mirror maze, I now have the chance to confess!

 _"Well, the thing is..." Alice stared at the boy's lips and she found herself edging closer to them._ I can feel his breath... _"I... I lo-"_

 _The door busted open, surprising the boy and Alice out of their moment. The door was opened so roughly that the glass on both the door and the wall it slammed against were cracked._

 _Alice was horrified to find Yuyu and Minori standing there! Minori's school clothes were covered with dirt, but especially on her shoes and hands, her finger nails caked with it. Yuyu was covered in scratches and stains, some bleeding, her hair was a mess, and in one arm she held a..._

 _"Yuyu." Alice asked, more confused than scared. "Is that a coyote?"_

 _The coyote snarled in response, foam leaking out of the mouth, eyes filled with primal anger. The coyote struggled in Yuyu's grasp, but to no avail._

 _To respond to Alice's question, Yuyu simply slammed the coyote in Minori's arms, who gripped the coyote in both arms like a doll with ease, despite the coyote's struggle. Yuyu then grabbed the back of Minori's school shirt and skirt, lifted her in the air, and spun around with her._

 _"Minori!" Yuyu roared with determination. "Inflict violence!"_

 _After reaching the full 360 Yuyu threw Minori toward Alice, flying at Mach speed with a trail of foam from the coyote._

 _Minori: "WITH GUSTOOOOO!"_

 _"Kyaaa!" Was Alice's only retorted before she was slammed to the other side of buildings interior by the Minori/coyote torpedo. The momentum brought the table half-way with them. Then the biting started._

 _"Ehhh?" The ice cream shop boy, who watched this all passively, was able to manage with amount of surprise one would have finding their purchase was 1$ more. "This is surprising!"_

 _"THEY'RE EATING MY FACE!"_

...

Gabriel chuckled at the slapstick and continued reading. After half-an-hour he set the book in his bag to return tomorrow. He didn't bother with the notes about the day's progression. He figured he would fill it out in the morning, after he had a night's sleep to really think things over he figured he'd do it then. The day's stress was still lingering in his head and he didn't trust himself to be able to take out any kind of bias writing anything down. So, that aside, he only had one thing left to do before calling it a night: A poem.

He got out another piece of paper, pencil ready, and waited for something to hit him. When an idea formed he began:

 _ **The Long Walk**_

 _The wheel spins, churns, grinds, halts, and screeches. Clockwise, repeating in its alien yet familiar echo. I can see the pattern through my theater in the greying chair, still it always ticks in tandem as it all spins. I look through my telescopes._

 _The heat sears, burns, dries, scorches, and weighs. Forward, I keep trudging through the barren sands, only focusing on the road ahead. I can feel the sand shifting beneath my very feet, but I can still feel the asphalt of the road on my soles. I walk forward._

 _The time passes, morning, day, evening, and night. Rotating, dawn to night the heat falls and rise in the familiar pattern of existence. I can feel the progression of wear and tear on the edges of my mind as the sun and moon make chase for each other. The clock ticks._

 _They scream in pain, confusion, misery, sadness, and madness. Echoing from all sides I feel their anguish grappling on my being. I sprint trying to out run their words and tongues, but their grip is tightening to keep me grounded. I fall._

 _The wheel spins, churns, grinds, halts, and screeches. Clockwise, repeating in its alien yet familiar echo. I slump in my greying, ripping chair. Resignation whispers its sweet promises and comforts, yet I'm still in this godless theater room. My choices are few._

 _I look through my telescope._

Gabriel set the pencil down and stretched. He set the notes next to the bag for tomorrow so he remembered what to look for before school. Looking at the phone clock he thought it was a good as time as any to go to bed, though a text from Sayori caught his eye. He opened it.

 _Thanks for the food! :D It was super yummy! :) :)_

Gabriel smiled. At least he could go to bed a good note. He picked up the kitten from his spot on the desk and turned off the light as he took him to bed with him.

Gabriel laid down and the kitten immediately took his place in Gabriel's neck and left shoulder, curling himself into a ball and purring softly.

Gabriel closed his eyes. He fell asleep in minutes.


End file.
